THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE MINNESOTA DAIRY INDUSTRY UNFAIR TRADE PRACTICES ACT.

A study was conducted in 1967 to determine the effect of the Minnesota Dairy Industry Unfair Trade Practices Act on the conduct and performance of selected Minnesota fluid milk market. In this paper, the results are presented to illustrate this effect and its implications for the administration, interpretation and enactment of unfair trade practice laws. It was concluded from the study that the law discourages competition or encourages cooperation among firms in oligopolistically competitive markets which results in less than desirable market performance. This paper suggests that there is a need for further investigation into the effect of unfair trade practice laws. Given the limited scope of the 1967 study, the implications are presented only as testable hypotheses.