July 8, 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In recognition of their outstanding contribution to antitrust scholarship, the authors listed below have been selected as recipients of the 19th Annual Jerry S. Cohen Memorial Fund Writing Award:
- C. Scott Hemphill, Moses H. Grossman Professor of Law, New York University School of Law;
- Tim Wu, Julius Silver Professor of Law, Science and Technology, Columbia Law School;
- Nancy Rose, Charles P. Kindleberger Professor of Applied Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
- Jonathan Sallet, Senior Fellow at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society.
If circumstances allow, the Award will be presented at an American Antitrust Institute event held later this year.
C. Scott Hemphill and Tim Wu are honored for their article, “Nascent Competitors,” 168 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1879 (2020). The article defines nascent competition as a distinct analytical category and outlines a program of antitrust enforcement to protect it. The authors make the case for antitrust enforcement even where the ultimate competitive significance of an acquisition target is uncertain and explain why a contrary view is mistaken as a matter of policy and precedent.
Nancy Rose and Jonathan Sallet are honored for their article, “The Dichotomous Treatment of Efficiencies in Horizontal Mergers: Too Much? Too Little? Getting It Right,” 168 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1941 (2020). The article evaluates economic analyses of merger efficiencies and concludes that a substantial body of work casts doubt on their presumptive existence and magnitude. The authors argue this implies that the current standards used by federal antitrust agencies to determine whether to investigate a horizontal merger likely are too permissive and that criticisms of the high burden courts impose on merging parties to show efficiencies are misplaced.
The four winners will share a $10,700 prize and will each receive an inscribed original artwork created by Lori Milstein.
In addition, this year’s award selection committee has conferred seven category awards, as follows:
- Best Antitrust Article of 2020 on Vertical Agreements: David Gilo and Yaron Yehezkel, “Vertical Collusion,” 51 Rand. J. of Econ. 133 (2020)
- Best Article of 2020 on Labor Antitrust: Ioana Marinescu and Eric A. Posner, “Why Has Antitrust Law Failed Workers?” 105 Cornell L. Rev. 1343 (2020)
- Best Antitrust Article of 2020 on Tacit Collusion: Jonathan B. Baker and Joseph Farrell, “Oligopoly Coordination, Economic Analysis, and the Prophylactic Role of Horizontal Merger Enforcement,” 168 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1985 (2020)
- Best Article of 2020 on Antitrust History: Herbert Hovenkamp and Fiona Scott Morton, “Framing the Chicago School of Antitrust Analysis,” 168 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1843 (2020)
- Best Article of 2020 on the Rule of Reason: Michael L. Katz and A. Douglas Melamed, “Competition Law as Common Law: American Express and the Evolution of Antitrust,” 168 U. Pa. L. Rev. 2061 (2020)
- Best Antitrust Article of 2020 on Cartel Enforcement: Christopher R. Leslie, “The Decline and Fall of Circumstantial Evidence in Antitrust Law,” 69 Am. U. L. Rev. 1713 (2020)
- Best Antitrust Article of 2020 on Platforms: John B. Kirkwood, “Antitrust and Two-Sided Platforms: The Failure of American Express,” 41 Cardozo L. Rev. 1805 (2020)
This year’s award selection committee consisted of Zachary Caplan, Senior Counsel at Berger Montague; Warren Grimes, Professor of Law at Southwestern Law School; John Kirkwood, Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law; Christopher Leslie, Professor of Law at University of California, Irvine School of Law; Roger Noll, Professor Emeritus of Economics at Stanford University; Daniel H. Silverman, Partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC; and Daniel A. Small, Partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC. (Professors Kirkwood and Leslie recused themselves from deliberations relating to their own articles.)
About the Award:
The Jerry S. Cohen Memorial Fund Writing Award was created through a trust established in memory of Jerry S. Cohen, an outstanding trial lawyer and antitrust scholar. The award is administered by the law firm he founded, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC.
The award honors the best antitrust writing published during the prior year that is consistent with the values that animated Jerry S. Cohen’s professional life: a genuine concern for economic justice, the dispersal of economic power, effective limitations upon economic power, and the vigorous enforcement of the antitrust laws.