In the News: Article in Antitrust Bulletin on Antitrust as Antiracism

By Joshua Davis, Eric Cramer, Reggie Streater, and Mark Suter

Eric Cramer and I were invited to write an article on antitrust and race for the Antitrust Bulletin. At first, we weren't sure we had anything to say. As we thought about it, however, it seemed to us that antitrust law can address some manifestations of systemic racism more effectively than antidiscrimination law. We enlisted as co-authors Reggie Streater and Mark Suter to help us research and support that argument. The Abstract is included below, and the full article is linked. I suspect the same framework may apply to other "Isms" as well, most obviously sexism. So this article may turn out to be the first installment in a larger project. Only time will tell. 

Abstract:

We usually think of antitrust law as addressing violations of free market
norms, not equality norms. The two, however, may be related. Systemic racism
(and other systemic “isms”) are about power and its abuse. So is antitrust law.
Moreover, antitrust may be able to fill gaps left by antidiscrimination law. In
particular, antitrust law can address:
 
(1) entire markets, not just individual firms or discrete actions;
(2) power imbalances from differences in capital, not just disparities in
compensation;
(3) financial allocations between owners and workers, not just between workers;
(4) legal violations that shrink total worker pay, and do not just distort its
allocation.
 
Antitrust law also relies on centrist free market principles. Those may be less
controversial than tackling issues of race directly. To be sure, in part for
that reason, antitrust laws are limited. They can at best remedy a small
portion of the potential wrongs caused by systemic racism. But antitrust may
nevertheless contribute valuably to systemic racial equality. It also may
provide a model for how antidiscrimination law might be reframed to make it
more effective in that regard.

This is an exciting exploration of how the antitrust laws can help combat
racial injustice and discrimination by addressing the systems that enable it.

Read more here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3816202

The article is a finalist for an award sponsored by Concurrences. Anyone who
is interested can vote at this link: https://awards.concurrences.com/en/awards/2021/academic-articles/antitrust-as-antiracism-antitrust-as-a-partial-cure-for-systemic-racism-and