Lawrence P. Schwartz is a (retired) consulting economist specializing in competition policy and regulatory matters. In 1998, he was appointed to the position of full-time economics Lay Member of the Competition Tribunal for a five-year term and adjudicated merger and abuse cases as well as consent agreements. He was a member of the Tribunal panel that decided the landmark “Propane merger” case, the first case to test the “efficiency defence” in s.96 of the Competition Act.
In his private consulting practice, he has appeared as an expert witness before the Tribunal on refusal-to-deal and at the Ontario Energy Board on rate-of-return regulation. He has provided research and policy advise to a number of government departments and agencies, special inquiries and private and international organizations on competition, energy regulation and financial-sector policy, and has published articles on merger efficiency, market definition and financial and capital market regulation. He was a part-time lecturer in finance at the Schulich School of Business, York University for ten years, and also taught the Economic Analysis of Law undergraduate course at the University of Toronto.
He also served as a member of the Consumer Advisory Committee of the Technical Standards and Safety Association of Ontario and is a past member of the American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law.
Mr. Schwartz holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. from the University of Toronto.
