ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some contributions of the new institutional economics approach to the analysis of legal issues regarding vertical integration and nonstandard forms of organizations. Four major ideas structured the chapter. First, competition policies cannot be examined solely with respect to the cases to which they apply. Second, decisions about vertical integration or deintegration must take into consideration not only ex post consequences but also ex ante circumstances that determined the choices made by actors. Careful scrutiny must be given to the fitness of the arrangement chosen with the attributes of the transaction they intend to organize. Third, modern market economies are made of a complex set of interwoven arrangements, of which spot markets and integrated firms are only two cases. Competition policies cannot evaluate properly non-standard arrangements of the hybrid type with the sole reference to markets and hierarchies as benchmarks. Fourth, competition policies are embedded in an institutional environment.
