On the 11th of January we had a magnificent guest lecture. We had the honour of being lectured by William Kovacic. He was the Commissioner of the United States Federal Trade Commission from January 4, 2006 to October 3, 2011.
The title of the lecture was “Competition in the Broadest sense: Michael Pertschuk’s Chairmanship of the Federal Trade Commission 1977-1981“. The presentation focussed on the FTC’s efforts in the 1970s to adopt a conception of competition law that encompassed a wide range of values beyond economic efficiency and involved efforts to restructure concentrated industries, and we derived lessons relevant to modern debates about what competition agencies should do. Moreover, it focussed on considerations of institutional capacity and political oversight as factors to be considered in designing and operating a competition agency.
The way William Kovacic lectured and how he dragged his audience into his story was fantastic. We think we speak for the entire master programme if we say that this was a lecture we will never forget.
Law and Economics @ Utrecht University 