TY  - JOUR
AU  - Sinn,Hans-Werner
TI  - The Competition Between Competition Rules
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 7273
PY  - 1999
Y2  - July 1999
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7273
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7273.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Hans-Werner Sinn
Ifo Institute -
Leibniz Institute for Economic Research
at University of Munich
Poschingerstr. 5
81679 Munich
GERMANY
Tel: 49-89-21802748
Fax: 49-89-397303;49-89-8506434 (home)
E-Mail: sinn@ifo.de
AB  - Open borders imply systems competition.  This paper studies the implications of systems competition for the national competition rules. It is shown that an equilibrium where all countries retain their antitrust laws does not exist, since abolishing this law makes it possible for a single country to establish a cartel that  successfully appropriates  foreign business profits. Instead of such an equilibrium, a deregulation race is likely to emerge in which all but the last country repeal their antitrust laws. The deregulation race results in a chain of Stackelberg leadership positions taken over by national cartels that renders lower profits and higher consumer rents than would have been the case with harmonization of the antitrust laws.
ER  -