John Kwoka

Neal F. Finnegan Distinguished Professor of Economics

John Kwoka teaches and conducts research in the areas of industrial organization, antitrust, and regulatory economics. His emphasis is on the application of economics to current policy issues in various industries. His other teaching interests include courses on the microeconomics of the financial crisis and on sports economics. Kwoka’s recent research has focused on the effectiveness of merger policy in the U.S. Kwoka’s most recent book on this subject CONTROLLING MERGERS AND MARKET POWER: A Program for Reviving Antitrust in America was just released by CPI Publishing. His earlier book, Mergers, Merger Control, and Remedies in the United States: A Retrospective Analysis was published in 2015 by MIT Press and won the Cohen Award for the Best Antitrust Book. He also co-edits The Antitrust Revolution, the leading casebook on recent antitrust cases. Kwoka has worked at the U.S. antitrust and regulatory agencies and serves as adviser or consultant to them and to those of other countries and international agencies.

Policy Commentaries

Presentations

Teaching

View CV

Awards & Honors

Jerry S. Cohen Award for Antitrust Scholarship, presented by the American Antitrust Institute (2014)
Distinguished Service Award, presented by the Industrial Organization Society (2012)

Selected Publications

Books

CONTROLLING MERGERS AND MARKET POWER: A PROGRAM FOR REVIVING ANTITRUST IN AMERICA, CPI, 2020
MERGERS, MERGER CONTROL, AND REMEDIES A RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS OF U.S. POLICY, MIT Press, 2015
THE ANTITRUST REVOLUTION, co-edited with Lawrence J. White:
6th Edition, Oxford University Press, 2014
5th Edition, Oxford University Press, 2008
4th Edition, Oxford University Press, 2004
3rd Edition, Oxford University Press, 1999
2nd Edition, HarperCollins, 1991st Edition, Scott Foresman 1989
POWER STRUCTURE: OWNERSHIP, INTEGRATION, AND COMPETITION IN THE U.S.ELECTRICITY INDUSTRY, Kluwer, 1996.

Articles

“Fix It or Forget It (August 31, 2021). Competition Policy” by John Kwoka and Spencer Weber Waller, International, Antitrust Chronicle, Summer 2021 , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3915083
“Scrambled Eggs and Paralyzed Policy: Breaking Up Consummated Mergers and Dominant Firms”‘ by John Kwoka and Tommaso Valletti Industrial and Corporate Change, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3736613 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3736613 (November 24, 2020).
“You Say You Want an Antitrust Revolution: The Paradox of Modern Merger Control” by John Kwoka, The Antitrust Bulletin, August 2020
“Raising Rivals Costs by Customer Diversion: Evidence from Airline Baggage Fees” by John Kwoka & Pinshuo Wang, International Journal of the Economics of Business, August 2020
“Conduct Remedies, With 2020 Hindsight: Have We Learned Anything in the Last Decade?”” by John Kwoka, CPI, April 20, 2020
“Second Thoughts on Double Marginalization‘” by John Kwoka and Margaret Slade, Antitrust, Spring 2020.

“Strategic Responses to Competitive Threats: Airlines in Action,” with Birzhan Batkeyev, Review of Industrial Organization, February 2019.
“Non-Price Effects of Mergers: Issues and Evidence,” with Shawn Kilpatrick, Antitrust Bulletin, April 2018
“The Effects of Mergers on Innovation: Economic Framework and Empirical Evidence,” in The Roles of Innovation in Competition Law Analysis, Paul Nihoul and Pieter Va Cleynenbreuge, eds., Edward Elgar, 2018.
The Structural Presumption and the Safe Harbor in Merger Review: False Positives or Unwarranted Concerns? Antitrust Law Journal, Volume 81 Issue 3 (2017)
From the Fringe to the Forefront: Low-Cost Carriers and Airline Price Determination with K. Hearle and P. Alepin Review of Industrial Organization, 2016.
The Changing Nature of Efficiencies in Mergers and in Merger Analysis Antitrust Bulletin, September 2015.
Predicting Merger Outcomes: The Accuracy of Stock Market Event Studies, Market Structure Characteristics, and Agency Decisions with C. Gu Journal of Law & Economics, August 2015.
Structure, Conduct, Policy, and Performance: The Simple Model of F. M. Scherer Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, March 2014.
Rockonomics: The Ticketmaster-Live Nation Merger and the Rock Concert Business,
The Antitrust Revolution, J. Kwoka and L. White, eds, 2014.
Does Merger Control Work? A Retrospective on U.S. Enforcement Actions and Merger Outcomes,
Antitrust Law Journal, 2013.
Behavioral Merger Remedies: Evaluation and Implications for Antitrust Enforcement,with Diana Moss,
Antitrust Bulletin, 2012.
Mergers That Eliminate Potential Competition, Research Handbook on the Economics of Antitrust Laws,
Einer Elhauge, ed., Edward Elgar, 2012.
Reflections on the Tenth Anniversary of the Antitrust and Regulatory Update,
Review of Industrial Organization, December 2011.
The Cost Structure of Regional Transmission Organizations,with Daniel Greenfield,
Energy Journal, v. 32, n., 2011.
Price Spikes in Energy Markets: Business by Usual Methods or Strategic Withholding? with Vladlena Sabodash,
Review of Industrial Organization, May 2011.
The Price Effect of Eliminating Potential Competition: Evidence from an Airline Merger,with Evgenia Shumilkina,
Journal of Industrial Economics, December 2010.
Incentive Regulation, Service Quality and Standards in U.S. Electricity Distribution, with Anna Ter-Martiroysan,
Journal of Regulatory Economics, December 2010.
Do Mergers Improve Efficiency? Evidence from Restructuring the U,S. Electric Power Sector, with Michael Pollitt,
International Journal of Industrial Organization, November 2010.
Divestiture Policy and Operating Efficiency in U.S. Electric Power Distribution, with Michael Pollitt and Sanem Sergici, Journal of Regulatory Economics, June 2010.

Policy Commentaries

5 reasons the T-Mobile-Sprint merger should’ve been rejected—and will raise your phone bill, Fortune, by Nicholas Economides, John Kwoka, Thomas Philippon, Robert Seamans, Hal Singer, Marshall Steinbaum, and Lawrence J. White, February 2020
BRIEF OF AMICI CURIAE NICHOLAS ECONOMIDES, JOHN KWOKA, THOMAS PHILIPPON, ROBERT SEAMANS, HAL SINGER, MARSHALL STEINBAUM, AND LAWRENCE J. WHITE IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS
Economists Tunney Act Comments October 2019 Assessing DOJ’s Proposed Remedy in Sprint/T-Mobile: Can Ex Ante Competitive Conditions in Wireless Markets Be Restored?
Economists Tunney Act Comments February 2020 Economists’ Tunney Act Reply Comments on the DOJ’s Proposed Remedy in the Sprint/T-Mobile Merger Proceeding
Restoring Antitrust, Restoring Competition, CPI Chronicle, October 2019
Masquerading as Merger Control: The U.S. Department of Justice Settlement with Sprint and T-Mobile AAI American Antitrust Institute, October 2019
Masquerading as merger control: The U.S. Department of Justice Settlement with Sprint and T-Mobile, by John Kwoka American Antitrust Institute, August 2019

Reviving Merger Control: A Comprehensive Plan for Reforming Policy and Practice, by John Kwoka, AAI White Paper, October 2018

Squaring the Deal: Merger Madness Milken Institute Review, 4th quarter 2017
John Kwoka
Evidence-Based Policy in Antitrust: The Need for Ongoing Merger Retrospectives
Pro-Market: Stigler Center at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business
John Kwoka and Marc Jarsulic
A Response to the FTC Critique of MMCR
John Kwoka
What is Trump antitrust? Resetting merger policy in the new Administration
Concurrences No.4-2016 Issue
Joseph Farrell, John Kwoka
One-and-a-Half Cheers for the New FTC Remedies Study
John Kwoka
U.S. ANTITRUST AND COMPETITION POLICY AMID THE NEW MERGER WAVE
Washington Center for Equitable Growth
John Kwoka

Working Papers

Merger Remedies: Firm Incentives Versus Agency Objectives by John Kwoka
The Endogenous Maverick Firm: A Model and Some Evidence by John Kwoka and Birzhan Batkeyev
Raising Rivals’ Costs by Customer Diversion: Evidence from Airline Bag Fees by John Kwoka and Pinshuo Wang