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.
- Jerry S. Cohen Award for Antitrust Scholarship, presented by the American Antitrust Institute (2014)
- Distinguished Service Award, presented by the Industrial Organization Society (2012)
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
- FIFI (Fix it or Forget it): A no Remedies Merger Policy, by John Kwoka and Spencer Weber Waller, Competition Policy International, August 2021
- 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
- Open Market Institute, Academic Advisory Board
- American Economics Association
- European Association for Research in Industrial Economics
- Industrial Organization Society (past president)
- International Competition Network
- Southern Economics Association (past vice-president)
Presentations
- Merger Policy with 2020 Foresight Roundtable Discussion, CPI, June 4, 2020, Virtual
- “The Economics of Remedies” presentation at GCLC Conference, Brussels, January 3, 2020
- “What Have We Learned from Existing Merger Retrospectives?” and “What Should the FTC’s Retrospective Program Be over the Next Decade,” presentations at the FTC Workshop on Retrospectives, Hearings on Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century, Washington, April 12, 2019
- Presentation at The Federal Economic Competition Commission COFECE in Mexico City, Mexico
Market Consolidation and Merger Control in the U.S August 2019 - Presentation at CRESSE Meetings in Rhodes, Greece Reviving Merger Control July 2019
- Presentation at OECD Competition Committee in Paris, France Principals, Agents,and the Economics of Merger Remedies June 2019
- Presentation at GCLC Conference in Brussels, Belgium Remedies and Remedy Policy: An Economic Framework January 2019
- Presentation at Free Competition, Concentration, and Regulation in Peru and the United States Conference in Lima Peru Merger Control: Policy and Practices October 2018
- Presentation at the Control of Concentration and its Effective Application Conference at The National Institute for the Defense of Free Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property (Indecopi) in Lima, Peru U.S. Antitrust Policy: A Century of Constant Change and Controversy October 2018
- Presentation at the American Bar Association 66th Antitrust Law Spring Meeting in Washington, DC Concentration, Competition and Policy April 2018
- Presentation at the European Association for Research in Industrial Economics (EARIE) at Maastrict University, Strategic Responses to Competitive Threats: Airlines in Action August 31 to September 2, 2017
- Presentation at European Commission in Brussels The Structural Presumption in Merger Control
July, 2017 - Presentation at the Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State, Is There a Concentration Problem in America? Concentration and Competition in the US Economy: Trends and Issues University of Chicago March 27-29, 2017
- Presentation at the American Antitrust Institute Airlines Roundtable in Washington, DC
2016 Year in Review December 12, 2016. - Presentation at the The Myra Kraft Open Classroom Series at Northeastern University in Boston, MA Economic Forces Before and After the Election November 16, 2016.
- Presentation at the ICN Chief Economists Forum at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver MERGER REMEDIES: An Economics Incentives Perspective September 13, 2016.
- Presentation at the Is the US Economy Becoming Less Competitive panel at the Searle Center Conference on Antitrust Economics and Competition Policy at Northwestern University University in Chicago, IL RECENT MERGER ENFORCEMENT IN THE U.S.: FTC Data 1996-2011
September 16, 2016. - Presentation at the American Antitrust Institute Annual Conference in Washington, DC
MERGER REMEDIES: THIRD WAY, OR SOFT ENFORCEMENT June 2016. - Presentation at the American Antitrust Institute Invitational Symposium on the Non-Price Effects of Mergers NON-PRICE EFFECTS OF MERGERS: ISSUES AND EVIDENCE June 2016.
- Presentation at the 14th Annual International Industrial Organization Conference, at LeBow College of Business Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA Strategic Responses to Competitive Threats: Airlines in Action April 2016.
- Presentation at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) workshop, in Paris, France Merger Remedies: Issue and Evidence April 2016.
- Presentation at Industrial Economics and Competition Policy, in Beijing
Merger Remedies March 2016. - Presentation at George Washington University Symposium, Washington, DC
FROM THE FRINGE TO THE FORE: Low-Cost Carriers and Airline Pricing? March 2016. - Presentation at United States Federal Trade Commission, Washington, DC
Merger Control June 2015. - Presentation at ABA/George Washington University Symposium, Washington, DC
Retrospective Analyses of Mergers, Merger Control, and Remedies: What Have We Learned? What Should We Do Next? June 2013. - Presentation at ABA Antitrust Section Spring Meeting, Washington, DC
MERGERS,REMEDIES,AND OUTCOMES: Some Evidence April 2013. - Presentation at the ICN Merger Workshop, Bogota, Columbia MERGER ANALYSIS: Levels of Evidence November 2012.
- Presentation at Northeastern University School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs Open Classroom Series
HARD VS. SOFT INDUSTRY POLICY: When and How the Government Should Intervene in Markets
September 2012. - Presentation at the 10th annual International Industrial Organization Conference
SEGMENTED COMPETITION IN AIRLINES: The changing roles of Low-Cost and Legacy Carriers in Fare Determination March 2012 - Presentation at the Loyola Antitrust Colloquium
DOES MERGER CONTORL WORK? A Retrospective on U.S. Enforcement Actions and Merger Policy April 2012. - Webinar Presentation for RTO Capacity Markets Fundamentals, Institute of Public Utilities, Michigan State University KEN ROSE: An Examination of RTO Capacity Markets
December 2011. - Presentation at Northeastern University School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs Open Classroom Series HOW MUCH REGULATION IN A MARKET ECONOMY? November 2011.
- Presentation at the Southern Economic Association 81st Annual Meeting
DOES MERGER CONTROL WORK? A Retrospective on U.S. Enforcement Actions and Merger Outcomes November 2011. - Presentation at Northeastern University “Teach-In Sunday: Reclaiming our Economy”
THE PUBLIC SECTOR, THE PRIVATE SECTOR AND NOW THE BANKING SECTOR November 2011. - Presentation at the European Association for Research in Industrial Economics (EARIE) in Stockholm, Sweden
DOES MERGER CONTROL WORK?A RETROSPECTIVE ON U.S. MERGER ENFORCEMENT AND POLICY, September 3, 2011. - Presentation at Amsterdam Center for Law and Economics 7th annual Meeting on Competition and Regulation
DEVELOPING EFFECTIVE MERGER CONTROL IN EMERGING ECONOMIES:
LESSONS FROM ESTABLISHED POLICY AND PRACTICE May 20, 2011. - Presentation at NU@Noon Alumni Program in Burlington, Massachusetts
TRADE POLICY IN A CHANGING GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT May 10. 2011. - Presentation at the 9th Annual International Industrial Organization Conference in Boston, Massachusetts RETROSPECTIVE ON MERGERS AND MERGER POLICY: AGENCY PREDICTIONS, ACTIONS, AND OUTCOMES, April 9, 2011.
- Presentation at Third Annual Federal Trade Commission and Northwestern University Microeconomics Conference Retrospectives on Merger Policy: A Survey
November 19, 2010. - Comments to the Horizontal Merger Guidelines Review Project of the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice, June 2010.
- Remarks at the AAI Annual Conference in Washington DC
The Public stake in Private Enterprise – The Obama Administration and the U.S. Auto Industry,
June 2010. - Opening Remarks at the 10th Annual Energy Roundtable:
Major Developments in Energy Markets – What They Mean for Electricity Regulation and Competition, March 2, 2010. - Comments Submitted to the Horizontal Merger Guidelines Review Project of the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice, January 2010.
- Market Structure, Competition, and Regulation in Electricity Market Reforms
World Bank Energy Practice Day, Washington, DC, January 2010. - Presentation at National Conference on State of Competition in the Indian Economy, Delhi
June 2009. - Presention at The Automobile Industry: A Research Roundtable, International Labor Organization, Geneva May 2009.
- Presention at Regulation, Investments, and Quality of Energy Regulation, Office of Energy Regulation, The Hague May 2009.
- Presentation at Roundtable on Industry Restructuring under Financial Duress International Industrial Organization Conference April 2009.
- The Price Effects Of Eliminating Potential Competition: Evidence from an Airline Merger,EARIE, Toulouse September 2008.
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Education
Ph.D.
University of Pennsylvania -
Contact
617.373.2252 j.kwoka@northeastern.edu -
Address
308 LA
360 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115