Antitrust for Institutional Investors

Antitrust for Institutional Investors PDF Author: Edward B. Rock
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 49

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Book Description
With the increasing concentration of shares in the hands of large institutional investors, combined with greater involvement in corporate governance, the antitrust risk of common ownership has moved to center stage. Through an excess of enthusiasm, portfolio managers could end up exposing their firms and the portfolio companies to huge antitrust liability. In this Article, we start from basic antitrust principles to sketch out an antitrust compliance program for institutional investors and for the investor relations groups in portfolio companies. In doing so, we address the fundamental antitrust issues (explicit and tacit coordination) raised by the presence of common ownership by large, diversified investors.We then turn to more speculative concerns that have garnered a great deal of attention and that, to our eyes, threaten to divert attention from the core antitrust issues. We critically examine the claims of this newer literature, as illustrated by Azar, Schmaltz and Tecu (2017), that existing ownership patterns in the airline industry results in substantially higher prices. We then turn to the argument in Elhauge (2016) that existing ownership patterns violate Section 7 of the Clayton Act. Finally, we find the policy recommendations of Posner, Scott Morton, and Weyl (2017) to limit the ownership shares of multiple firms in oligopolistic industries to be overly stringent. To limit the chilling effect of antitrust on the valuable role of institutional investors in corporate governance, we propose a quasi “safe harbor” that protects investors from antitrust liability when their ownership share is less than 15 percent, the investors have no board representation, and they only engage in “normal” corporate governance activities.

Antitrust for Institutional Investors

Antitrust for Institutional Investors PDF Author: Edward B. Rock
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 49

Get Book Here

Book Description
With the increasing concentration of shares in the hands of large institutional investors, combined with greater involvement in corporate governance, the antitrust risk of common ownership has moved to center stage. Through an excess of enthusiasm, portfolio managers could end up exposing their firms and the portfolio companies to huge antitrust liability. In this Article, we start from basic antitrust principles to sketch out an antitrust compliance program for institutional investors and for the investor relations groups in portfolio companies. In doing so, we address the fundamental antitrust issues (explicit and tacit coordination) raised by the presence of common ownership by large, diversified investors.We then turn to more speculative concerns that have garnered a great deal of attention and that, to our eyes, threaten to divert attention from the core antitrust issues. We critically examine the claims of this newer literature, as illustrated by Azar, Schmaltz and Tecu (2017), that existing ownership patterns in the airline industry results in substantially higher prices. We then turn to the argument in Elhauge (2016) that existing ownership patterns violate Section 7 of the Clayton Act. Finally, we find the policy recommendations of Posner, Scott Morton, and Weyl (2017) to limit the ownership shares of multiple firms in oligopolistic industries to be overly stringent. To limit the chilling effect of antitrust on the valuable role of institutional investors in corporate governance, we propose a quasi “safe harbor” that protects investors from antitrust liability when their ownership share is less than 15 percent, the investors have no board representation, and they only engage in “normal” corporate governance activities.

Common Ownership, Institutional Investors, and Antitrust

Common Ownership, Institutional Investors, and Antitrust PDF Author: Menesh S. Patel
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 59

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Book Description
Recent empirical studies demonstrate the significant extent to which a small number of well-known institutional investors have taken on large ownership interests in the majority of large U.S. public companies, including large ownership interests in horizontal competitors. The response to these studies has been dramatic, with calls for significant overhauls of antitrust policy and institutional shareholding due to common ownership's potential anticompetitive effects. Yet, this article argues, it is important to first appreciate a number of consequential complexities before any such changes occur. The article shows that while common ownership can harm competition as a theoretical matter, whether and the extent to which common ownership will actually generate competitive harm in a given market depends on numerous factors, such as the nature and extent of common ownership in the relevant market, the structure of the market, shareholder incentives, and managerial objectives. For that reason, the mere fact that institutional investors' significant equity holdings generate high levels of common ownership by itself is insufficient to conclude that this common ownership results in substantial competitive harm in a given market. The article's second contribution is a set of modest, but important, policy proposals that flow directly from the paper's core finding that there is no unequivocal answer to whether common ownership in a particular market will generate substantial competitive harm. Most important, rather than restrictions on common ownership or widespread antitrust investigation, or safe harbors or presumptions of legality, common ownership should continue to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

The Antitrust Drama of Common Ownership and Institutional Investors

The Antitrust Drama of Common Ownership and Institutional Investors PDF Author: Pierre Chellet
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 54

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Book Description


Regulating Competition in Stock Markets

Regulating Competition in Stock Markets PDF Author: Lawrence R. Klein
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118236866
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 403

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Book Description
A guide to curbing monopoly power in stock markets Engaging and informative, Regulating Competition in Stock Markets skillfully analyzes the impact of the recent global financial crisis on health and happiness, and uses this opportunity to put regulatory systems in perspective. Happiness is lost because of emotional and physical health deterioration resulting from the crisis. Therefore, the authors conclude that financial crisis prevention should be the focus of public policy. This book is the most comprehensive study so far on potential risks to the stock market, especially various forms of market manipulation that lead to mania and eventual crisis. Based on litigation cases from international stock markets, and borrowing multidisciplinary findings in the fields of finance, economics, accounting, media studies, criminology, legal studies, psychology, and medicine, this book is the first to provide thorough micro-level regulatory proposals rooted in financial reality. By focusing on securities trading, they apply antitrust measures to limiting monopolistic power that is used for the manipulation of investors' perception and monopolistic profit. These proposals are quantifiable, adjustable, inexpensive, and can be easily implemented by any securities regulating agency for real-time oversight and daily operations. The recommendations found here are intended to improve the fairness and transparency of the financial markets, thereby perfecting the market competition, protecting investors, stabilizing the market, and preventing crises Explores how avoiding crises can to contribute to a more scientific, health aware, and civilized economic and social development Written by a team of authors who have extensive experience in this dynamic field, including Nobel Laureate Lawrence R. Klein Since the founding of the first, organized stock exchange in Amsterdam 400 years ago, no systematic economic research results on stock markets have been implemented in stock market regulation around the world. Regulating Competition in Stock Markets aims to fill this void.

Why Common Ownership Creates Antitrust Risks

Why Common Ownership Creates Antitrust Risks PDF Author: José Azar
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 8

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Book Description
The share of stocks beneficially owned by institutional investors has increased substantially over the last three decades. Together with a high and increasing level of concentration in the asset management industry, this trend implies that a small number of institutional investors now constitute the largest shareholders of most publicly traded firms in the U.S. and in other developed economies. When the same set of investors owns most firms, they are bound to own several firms in the same industry. Such overlapping ownership interests among competitors, or “common ownership,” may imply a reduction in firms' incentives to compete, compared to a situation in which competitors are controlled by separate sets of investors, and may thus create antitrust risks. Recent empirical research shows evidence for such anti-competitive effects of common ownership. These findings have since ignited a debate on the antitrust risk posed by institutional investors, its legal implications and potential solutions. This article first illustrates the extent of present-day common ownership and discusses the economic logic of why common ownership leads to reduced incentives to compete and may cause anti-competitive outcomes. We then review some of the empirical evidence to date, discuss critiques of the same and explain the conceptual problems inherent with all potential policy solutions. The legal debate around these findings is discussed by a fast-growing literature, including contributions by other authors in this issue.

Mere Common Ownership and the Antitrust Laws

Mere Common Ownership and the Antitrust Laws PDF Author: Thomas A. Lambert
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Common ownership (also called horizontal shareholding) refers to a stock investor's owner-ship of minority stakes in multiple competing firms. Recent empirical studies have purported to show that institutional investors' common ownership reduces competition among commonly owned competitors. This Article considers the legality of “mere” common ownership--horizontal shareholding that is not accompanied by any sort of illicit agreement (e.g., a hub-and-spoke conspiracy) or the holding of control-conferring shares--under the U.S. antitrust laws. Prominent antitrust scholars and the leading treatise have concluded that mere common ownership that has the incidental effect of lessening market competition may violate both Clayton Act Section 7 and Sherman Act Section 1. This Article demonstrates otherwise. Competition-lessening instances of mere common ownership do not violate Section 7 because they fall within the provision's “solely for investment” exemption, which the scholars calling for condemnation have misinterpreted. Mere common ownership does not run afoul of Section 1 because it lacks the sort of agreement (contract, combination, or conspiracy) required for liability under that provision. From a social welfare standpoint, these legal outcomes are desirable. Condemning mere common ownership under the antitrust laws would likely entail significant marginal costs, while the marginal benefits such condemnation would secure are speculative. Accordingly, courts and enforcers should not, on the current empirical record, stretch the antitrust laws to condemn mere common ownership.

Overlapping Financial Investor Ownership, Market Power, and Antitrust Enforcement

Overlapping Financial Investor Ownership, Market Power, and Antitrust Enforcement PDF Author: Jonathan B. Baker
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 21

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Book Description
As is well known among financial economists but not previously recognized within the antitrust community, large and diversified institutional investors such as BlackRock, Fidelity, State Street, and Vanguard collectively own roughly two-thirds of the shares of publicly traded U.S. firms overall, up from about one-third in 1980. Recent economic research involving airlines and banking raises the possibility that overlapping ownership of horizontal rivals by diversified financial institutions facilitates anticompetitive conduct throughout the economy, and that the problem has been growing for decades, unnoticed until now. This response to an article by Professor Einer Elhauge, explains why it may be more difficult to address overlapping financial investor ownership under the antitrust laws than Elhauge recognizes.

Antitrust and Competition Review

Antitrust and Competition Review PDF Author: Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781843740872
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 462

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Book Description
This title provides a comprehensive overview of the legal and regulatory frameworks governing business practice word wide.

Institutional Ownership in the Twenty-First Century

Institutional Ownership in the Twenty-First Century PDF Author: Danielle Ayala Chaim
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
In analyzing these consortiums, this chapter draws upon antitrust rules relative to standard-setting organizations and explores how these anticompetitive risks are exacerbated by these investor consortiums. Finally, this chapter proposes immediate regulatory responses aimed at preventing institutional investors from engaging in collective actions that limit competition. The suggested policies represent a means to resolve the delicate tension between the goal of corporate law to encourage collaboration among shareholders and the goal of antitrust law to restrict cooperation among competitors.

Antitrust and the Triumph of Economics

Antitrust and the Triumph of Economics PDF Author: Marc Allen Eisner
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
Antitrust and the Triumph of Economics: Institutions, Expertise, and Policy Change