Policy Watch: Antitrust Goes to College
美国司法部反垄断部门调查23所精英大学涉嫌串通定价和交换助学金信息，本文分析现行反垄断法对大学行为的适用性及可能的辩护理由。
It may have come as a shock to many economists, especially those in academia, to learn that the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has been investigating alleged price fixing and information exchange of financial aid among 23 prestigious east coast colleges and universities. These schools include the “Ivy overlap group”—MIT, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Yale—and the “Pentagonal/Sisters group”—Amherst, Barnard, Bowdoin, Bryn Mawr, Colby, Mount Holyoke, Middlebury, Smith, Trinity, Tufts, Vassar, Wesleyan, and Williams. We have no specific knowledge concerning the possible validity of these allegations or expertise about their legality. Rather, in this article, we wish to present the potential applicability of current antitrust doctrines to colleges and their conduct and the possible defenses that they might raise to justify their actions.