| dc.description.abstract | Competition policy concerns itself with the regulation of economic behaviour of firms. The interpretation and application of competition policy by the European institutions (above all the European Court of Justice and the European Commission) has been contingent on legal and political arguments, but has also to a considerable degree been influenced by economic thought. In my research I focus on the diffusion and application of the concepts, models, and theories of economics by lawyers and policymakers in Europe with regard to oligopolistic markets. I describe three economic approaches to oligopoly theory: ordoliberalism, the so-called Chicago School, and game theory. Each of these has, to a varying extent, shaped the history of competition economics and, directly or indirectly, the development of European competition policy. I will argue that this parallel history has produced a distinct conceptual language that employs a mixture of legal and economic narratives and frames. | |
