Guidelines: Antitrust Economics at a Time of Upheaval: Competition Policy Cases on Two Continents

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1. Deadline. We need a draft (electronically, as a Word or WordPerfect e-mail attachment) of your chapter by July 15, 2022. This is a hard deadline.  In order to meet our target publication date with CPI, we really do need your chapter by then.  We will likely offer some brief editorial comments on it and ask you to return a revised electronic draft by September 15.  Your job will then be over.
2. Length. In order to fit all the cases into a saleable book, each chapter must take no more than 20 book pages.  This translates into about 8,000 words, or 30-35 pages of double-spaced typed pages, inclusive of everything: tables, figures, references, appendix, etc.
3. Format. Each chapter should focus on the specific case at hand and its importance for antitrust/competition policy. It is extremely important that each author make a good faith effort to present an even-handed version of the “other side’s” case. (Identify your role in the case in an introductory footnote; but please do not identify anyone on the other side.  This is not an opportunity to “name names” or get the last word in.)  Note that our Introduction will note that each author has complied with this request and hence may not be presenting his/her side of the case in its full advocacy.

In terms of intended audience, you might think of a bright undergraduate who has had some basic microeconomics and is using the book in an IO course.  Simple algebra and even simplified regression results can be included in the text, or in a short technical appendix (see below).

Every chapter is different, and we impose no uniformity.  That stated, we believe that the following is likely to be a useful format, or at least a useful list of topics to be developed:

1. 1. 1. Introduction
      2. Background of the case and the issues
      3. The basic developments in the case
      4. The plaintiff’s arguments
      5. The defendant’s arguments
      6. The outcome, and subsequent developments
      7. Conclusion, reflections on the case

Tech. App.*

Examples of chapters that fit this general pattern can be found in recent antitrust anthologies that have been edited by John & Larry.

4. *Technical appendix. We encourage all authors to include a short technical appendix to each chapter.  This is the place for more advanced theory, or math, or empirical work that would be useful but may not quite fit in the flow of your chapter.  Please note that this should be incremental, so that the chapter can still be read and understood without the appendix. But for more advanced undergraduate and graduate readers, and instructors who wish to cover the material in a more sophisticated way, the appendix should provide them with at least a taste of that material.  Our expectation is that these appendices might be 3 to 5 pages in length.
5. Footnote and reference style.  All authors should use the standard economics journal style of “Author (year)” for citing in the text or in footnotes, with an alphabetical list of references at the end of your chapter.  The style for that reference list should be consistent across all of your references and should mimic the style that is used by the Journal of Economic Perspectives.  You can access a recent issue of the JEP here.