The 1968 Neal Report: An Introduction and Reprint

Herbert Hovenkamp, Apr 30, 2009

Reading the Neal Report today is a trip to another world. But, in fact, it represented the received orthodoxy of its day. The tragedy of the Neal Report is that the model it represented was just on the verge of complete, catastrophic replacement. The views expressed there reflected the culmination of thirty years of industrial organization thinking that we today identify as the structure-conduct-performance (S-C-P) paradigm. Indeed, the publication of the Neal Report played no small part in instigating a massive reaction among younger academics that eventually cast the S-C-P paradigm onto the dung heap of defunct economic doctrines. This reprint of the Neal Report includes the authors Summary of the Report, as well as the main body´s most important components, which are an introduction on market structure and the role of competition; and a section on oligopoly, monopoly and industrial concentration, including the Reports controversial proposal of a Concentrated Industries Act. Omitted are a section on conglomerates and conglomerate mergers, as well as concluding sections on the Robinson-Patman Act and patents.