Chart of Assignments
Updated as of: April 17, 2019
Where and When:
Mondays & Tuesdays 2:30 - 3:45 p.m., Classroom 5
Abbreviations:
"EE" = Einer Elhauge, United States Antitrust Law and Economics, Third Edition
"POE" = Principles of Economics, Second Edition, PDF version, open-access/open-source casebook downloadable for free ← ← ← Note: Be sure to get the PDF version. You may want to print out the portions we read. There's definitely no need to print out the whole thing.
Day by Day:
Week No 1
MONDAY Jan 14 No 1
0. About the Course
No reading.
1. Key Concepts
No reading.
2. Antitrust Law Overview
No reading.
TUESDAY Jan 15 No 2
0. About the Course (continued)
Read the syllabus.
2. Antitrust Law Overview, continued
No reading.
3. Economics for Antitrust
No reading.
Week No 2
MONDAY January 21
NO CLASS TODAY
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
TUESDAY January 22 No 3
3. Economics for Antitrust, continued
Watch video Supply and Demand: Crash Course Economics #4, by CrashCourse
Watch video Economic Schools of Thought: Crash Course Economics #14, by CrashCourse
Watch video Marginal Analysis, Roller Coasters, Elasticity, and Van Gogh: Crash Course Econ #18, by CrashCourse
Watch video Markets, Efficiency, and Price Signals: Crash Course Economics #19, by CrashCourse
Read POE, Chapter 3 "Demand and Supply," pp. 45-77 by marked page numbers (pp. 55-87 of the PDF file)
(Note: In class, I may have you work on some problems in groups. For the next class, on January 28, I plan to assign some problems from this chapter for you to prepare in advance so you can give answers in class.)
Week No 3
MONDAY January 28 No 4
3. Economics for Antitrust, continued
(Note: I will be cold calling on people to provide the answers you are asked below to prepare.)
Prepare, from POE, answers to these questions at the end of Chapter 3 (which start at marked page 77): Self-Check Questions 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 10, & 11.
Watch video Watch video Revenue, Profits, and Price: Crash Course Economics #24, by CrashCourse
Read POE, Chapter 7 "Production, Costs, and Industry Structure," pp. 155-183 by marked page numbers (pp. 165-193 of the PDF file)
Prepare, from POE, answers to these questions at the end of Chapter 7 (which start at marked page 183): Self-Check Questions 1, 2 (for Q.2, note that “Exercise 7.1” is meant to refer to the immediately preceding question), 5, 6, 7, & 8; Review Questions 17 & 29; Critical Thinking Questions 31 & 32.
Read POE, Chapter 8 "Perfect Competition," pp. 187-210 by marked page numbers (pp. 197-220 of the PDF file).
TUESDAY January 29 No 5
3. Economics for Antitrust, continued
(Note: I will be cold calling on people to provide the answers you are asked below to prepare.)
Prepare, from POE, answers to these questions at the end of Chapter 8 (which start at marked page 210): Self-Check Questions 1, 5, 6, & 7. Review Questions 14, 15, 17, 18, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, & 29.
Watch video Watch video Monopolies and Anti-Competitive Markets: Crash Course Economics #25, by CrashCourse
Read POE, Chapter 9 "Monopoly," pp. 215-232 by marked page numbers (pp. 225-242 of the PDF file)
Prepare, from POE, answers to these questions at the end of Chapter 9 (which start at marked page 232): Self-Check Questions 1-6 except 3; Review Questions 7-24 except 23.
Week No 4
MONDAY February 4 No 6
3. Economics for Antitrust, continued
Read EE, all of Ch. 1.A., pp. 1-11
4. Remedies, Standing, Jurisdiction, Enforcement
Read EE, Ch. 1.B., pp. 11-34
TUESDAY February 5 No 7
4. Remedies, Standing, Jurisdiction, Enforcement, continued
Read EE, Ch. 1.B., pp. 34-51
Week No 5
MONDAY February 11 No 8
5. Relevant Laws and General Legal Standards (for Horizontal Restraints)
Read EE, Ch. 2.A., pp. 53-57
6. Horizontal Price Fixing
Read EE, Ch. 2.B., pp. 58-85
TUESDAY February 12 No 9
6. Horizontal Price Fixing, continued
Read EE, Ch. 2.B., pp. 85-89
7. Horizontal Output Restrictions
Read EE, Ch. 2.C., pp. 89-101
8. Horizontal Market Divisions
Read EE, Ch. 2.D., pp. 101-106
Week No 6
MONDAY February 18 No 10
7. Horizontal Output Restrictions, continued
Listen to and/or read the Supreme Court oral argument in NCAA v. OU at oyez.org
TUESDAY February 19
No class – canceled for inclement weather.
Week No 7
MONDAY February 26 No 11
9. Horizontal Agreements Not to Deal with Particular Firms
Read EE, Ch. 2.E., pp. 106-127
TUESDAY February 27 No 12
10. Social Welfare Justifications
Read EE, Ch. 2.F., pp. 152-177
Week No 8
MONDAY March 4 No 13
11. Intellectual Property Justifications
Read EE, Ch. 2.G., pp. 177-204
12. Buyer Cartels
No reading; lecture only
TUESDAY March 5 No 14
Review: Horizontal Restraints
Review your notes on horizontal restraints. We will do a review problem and questions in class.
13. Relevant Laws and Basic Legal Elements (for Monopolization)
Read EE, Ch. 3.A., pp. 211-216
14. First Element: Monopoly Power
Read EE, Ch. 3.B., pp. 216-241
Week No 9
MONDAY March 11 No 15
Review: Horizontal Restraints
Prepare to discuss in class your answer to the NYLACC Attack hypothetical problem [pdf].
14. First Element: Monopoly Power, continued
Read EE, Ch. 3.B., pp. 241-263
TUESDAY March 12 No 16
14. First Element: Monopoly Power, continued
Read EE, Ch. 3.B., pp. 263-274
Spring Break
MONDAY March 18
Spring Break - no class
TUESDAY March 19
Spring Break - no class
Week No 10
MONDAY March 25 No 17
15. Second Element: Exclusionary Conduct
Read EE, Ch. 3.C., pp. 274-291, 299-302
TUESDAY March 26 No 18
15. Second Element: Exclusionary Conduct, continued
Read EE, Ch. 3.C., pp. 313-318, 325-332
16. Causality Between Power and Conduct
No reading; lecture only for this topic.
17. Attempted Monopolization
Read EE, Ch. 3.E., pp. 358-363
(Note: Reading we didn't get to has been struck out and re-inserted for the next class session.)
Week No 11
MONDAY April 1 No 19
Note: Today we will be catching up. So there's not very much new reading. But please refresh yourself on what we didn't get to last Tuesday, which has been struck out above and re-inserted for today.
15. Second Element: Exclusionary Conduct, continued
Read (re-review) EE, Ch. 3.C., pp. 325-332
16. Causality Between Power and Conduct
No reading; lecture only for this topic.
17. Attempted Monopolization
Read (re-review) EE, Ch. 3.E., pp. 358-363
18. Introduction (to Vertical Restraints)
Read (re-review) EE, Ch. 4.A., pp. 369-371
TUESDAY April 2 No 20
19. Exclusive Dealing
Read EE, Ch. 4.B., pp. 371-386, 400-406
Week No 12
MONDAY April 8 No 21
19. Exclusive Dealing, continued
Re-review EE, Ch. 4.B., pp. 400-406 (Microsoft, exclusive dealing portion)
20. Tying
Read EE, pp. 455-462 (Microsoft, tying portion)
TUESDAY April 9 No 22
21. Loyalty and Bundled Discounts
Read EE, pp. 482-489 (LePage's v. 3M)
Special Review Topic: Analysis Synthesis
No reading for this topic.
22. Introduction (to Distorting Downstream Distribution)
No reading for this topic.
Week No 13
MONDAY April 15 No 23
23. Intrabrand Distributional Restraints on Resale
Read EE, pp. 538-555 (Leegin Creative Leather v. PSKS)
24. Price Discrimination
No reading for this topic.
25. Are the Defendants Separate Entities?
Read EE, pp. 605-614 (American Needle v. NFL)
TUESDAY April 16 No 24
26. Standards for Finding Vertical Agreements
No reading for this topic.
27. Standards for Finding Horizontal Agreements
Read EE, pp. 653-658 (Bell Atlantic v. Twombly)
28. Introduction (to Mergers and Acquisitions)
No reading for this topic.
SPECIAL NOTE FOR THURSDAY APRIL 18
If you are participating in the optional, ungraded practice exam exercise, please e-mail your group responses to the Antitrust Practice Essay Exam [pdf] to me at eric.e.johnson@ou.edu by 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 18, 2019. Please use the subject line "Antitrust Practice Group Response." Please turn in the response as a DOCX file with the name Antitrust_Practice_Essay_Smith_Jones_Davis_Parker.docx, except that "Smith" etc. is replaced with the last names of the people in your group. Please make your document single-spaced Times New Roman 12-point font with 1-inch margins all around. Please put your last names in the header and number the pages in the footer with "Page __ of __."
Week No 14
MONDAY April 22 No 25
29. Horizontal Mergers
There is no separate reading for this topic, but the Khan reading below serves for this topic as well as Topic 31.
30. Vertical Mergers
There is no separate reading for this topic, but the Khan reading below serves for this topic as well as Topic 31.
31. The Current Antitrust Debate: Amazon's Antitrust Paradox
Read portions of Lina M. Khan, Amazon's Antitrust Paradox, 126 Yale L.J. 710 (2016)
as specified: Read pp. 712-790 & 802-805, but skip all of the footnotes except that you should read these footnotes: 24, 30, 37, 38, 43, 105, 106, 128, 130, 133, 140, 141, 147, 167, 174, 279, 305, 352, 376, & 399.
TUESDAY April 23 No 26
Review
Review "The Last Mile in the Plum Isles" practice exam and the Antitrust Analysis Synthesis. Also, you will find that the Khan reading, assigned yesterday for Topic 31, serves as review material; we may talk about it in a review context. Review your notes for the semester and other study materials as you deem appropriate.