52 pages AEI Press: AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies Publication Date: March 2006 Paperback ISBN: 0844713902 Price: $ 10 Add to Cart   Examination Copies

View the press release/summary.

Over the last half-century, distinguished economist William Baumol has dramatically influenced microeconomic theory. Regulation Misled by Misread Theory yet again changes how we think about economics.  Standard economics has long held that firms can price discriminate only when they have monopoly power. Antitrust authorities and other regulators are thus tempted to use the existence of price discrimination as one indicator that a firm should possibly be subject to government investigation. In this monograph Professor Baumol shows that price discrimination not only exists in competitive markets but sometimes is a crucial feature of them. Baumol concludes by urging regulators to tread carefully when applying theory to policy.

William J. Baumol is professor of economics at New York University and professor emeritus and senior research economist at Princeton University. His honors and awards include ten honorary degrees, presidency of the American Economic Association, the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, the Eastern Economic Association, and the Atlantic Economic Society, and membership in the National Academy of Sciences. He has also served on many boards and committees. Professor Baumol is the author of more than thirty books and over five hundred articles published in professional journals.