Time: 13:00-15:00 (UK Time), Wednesday, 10 January 2024
Presenter: Dr. Chase Foster, SOAS University of London
Co-author: Prof. Sebastian Kohl, Free University of Berlin
Chair: Prof. Victor Murinde, SOAS University of London
Online venue: Click here to join the seminar on Microsoft Teams (For any inquiry about how to join the online seminar, please contact Dr. Meng Xie at xm1@soas.ac.uk)

Abstract 
A growing political economy literature has proposed that competition law fundamentally shapes the organization and operation of capitalism. In this paper, we empirically examine this relationship using long-run data spanning from 1890-2010. We find that market competition rules systematically differ across liberal market economies (LMEs) and coordinated market economies (CMEs) and that these differences are correlated with objective, time-varying measures of economic coordination. Notably, systems with more stringent abuse of dominance rules have more extensive nonmarket coordination, while more adversarial and legalistic institutions are associated with less nonmarket coordination. Analyzing extensive party manifesto data in seven countries, we show that political parties in CMEs are more likely to express concerns about economic dominance while LME parties are more focused on consumer welfare. Our findings point to the value of incorporating competition law into comparative capitalism scholarship and political coalitions into the analysis of competition law. 

Keywords: Antitrust, competition policy, varieties of capitalism, political parties, historical-comparative analysis

Dr. Chase Foster is a Lecturer in Public Policy & Management at SOAS University of London.  Dr. Foster received his Master in Public Policy and PhD degrees from Harvard University (USA) and his degree in Public Policy and African Studies at the University of North Carolina (USA). Previously, he held academic posts at the Munich School of Public Policy,  Brown University, and the London School of Economics and Political Science. An expert in the comparative political economy of market regulation, Dr. Foster's work has been published in leading international journals such as Socio-Economic Review, European Union Politics, and Regulation & Governance.  His current book manuscript, Trust on Trial: Competition Law, Coordination Rights, and Varieties of Capitalism comparatively examines the durable ways that competition law and policy shaped the development of capitalism during the long 20th century. Dr. Foster has extensive experience working as a policy practitioner in both domestic and international contexts, and remains an active participant in contemporary public policy debates. More information can be found at http://www.chasefoster.com.

Prof. Sebastian Kohl is Professor in Sociology at Free University of Berlin (JFK Institute). Previously, he was a senior researcher at Cologne's Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies where he also received his PhD in a co-tutelle with Sciences Po. Professor Kohl has been a Kennedy fellow at the Center for European Studies at Harvard and worked at the sociology department and Institute for Housing and Urban Research in Uppsala. He has published widely in leading economic sociology and political economy journals such as Socio-Economic Review, Review of International Political Economy, Politics & Society, the American Economic Review, and the British Journal of Sociology on subjects such as the political economy of housing and the insurance sector. His book, Homeownership, Renting and Society: Historical and Comparative Perspectives was published with Routledge in 2017. Professor Kohl's work often involve the collection of new data which he makes available through his website at https://www.sebastiankohl.com.