Project PRIN 2017 From Models to Decisions
Economists are often called upon as expert witnesses by the parties involved in antitrust litigation. One challenge they may face in US federal courts is compliance with the Daubert standard of admissibility of expert testimony. The interplay between model applicability and the Daubert standard is analysed, suggesting the importance of distinguishing between weak applicability claims, those that state that a model’s critical assumptions are shared by the target, and strong applicability claims, those that connect empirical models and quantitative market features. Recent antitrust cases in which expert testimonies based on economic models have been assessed following the Daubert standard are examined using this framework. Some normative implications are drawn concerning how to improve judges’ assessment of model-based arguments. Finally, even when economic models are admitted at trial, their impact on the courts’ final decisions remain unclear. Here, the performance of industrial organization models in antitrust courts is reviewed and some reasons are given to explain why courts often find model-based arguments either irrelevant or lacking credibility.
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