The Scope and Limitations of Incorporating Externalities in Competition Analysis within a Consumer Welfare Approach

R. Inderst, Stefan Thomas
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引用次数: 2

Abstract

The failure to fully internalize externalities from production and consumption, including on future generations, is supposed to be at the core of the perceived failure to ensure (ecological) sustainability within the realm of antitrust enforcement. While some argue that sustainability should constitute a goal in itself that must be balanced against economic efficiency in antitrust analysis, we instead want to explore whether and how sustainability can be incorporated into a consumer welfare approach. We make a key distinction between what we term an individualistic and a collective consumer welfare analysis. Within an individualistic consumer welfare analysis, consumers’ willingness-to-pay is measured ceteris paribus, holding other consumers’ choices fixed. In a collective consumer welfare analysis, consumers may express their willingness-to-pay also for the choices of others and, thereby, also for the reduction of externalities on themselves. Borrowing from environmental and resource economics, we also discuss more indirect ways of incorporating such externalities. And we critically assess the possibility of ‘laundering’ consumers’ sustainability preferences in the light of supposed biases and cognitive limitations. Finally, we relate our analysis to the Draft Horizontal Guidelines of the European Commission, published in March 2022. antitrust, consumer welfare, conjoint analysis, contingent valuation, Draft EU Horizontal Guidelines, environmental economics, externalities, laundering preferences, sustainability, willingness-to-pay
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在消费者福利方法中纳入竞争分析外部性的范围和限制
未能充分内部化生产和消费的外部性,包括对后代的外部性,应该是在反垄断执法领域内确保(生态)可持续性失败的核心。虽然有些人认为可持续性本身应该构成一个目标,必须在反垄断分析中与经济效率相平衡,但我们想探索是否以及如何将可持续性纳入消费者福利方法。我们在个人主义和集体消费者福利分析之间做了一个关键的区分。在个人主义的消费者福利分析中,消费者的支付意愿是在其他消费者选择不变的情况下衡量的。在集体消费者福利分析中,消费者也可能表示愿意为他人的选择付费,从而也愿意为减少自己的外部性付费。借鉴环境和资源经济学,我们还讨论了更间接的纳入这些外部性的方法。我们根据假定的偏见和认知限制,批判性地评估了“洗白”消费者可持续性偏好的可能性。最后,我们将我们的分析与欧盟委员会于2022年3月发布的横向指南草案联系起来。反垄断、消费者福利、联合分析、条件估值、欧盟横向准则草案、环境经济学、外部性、洗钱偏好、可持续性、支付意愿
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