The Stigler Center invites submissions of short academic articles (up to 3,000 words) focused on mapping out how antitrust enforcement impacts the development of new technologies, the diffusion of innovation, productivity growth, and the economy more broadly. The authors of the best submissions will have their work published on ProMarket.org and will be invited to present and discuss their ideas at the Stigler Center’s 2024 Antitrust and Competition Conference, which will take place in Chicago on April 18-19, 2024.
In 2017, the Stigler Center embarked on an ambitious project to reinvigorate the discussion of concentration and monopoly in the United States, starting with the conferenceIs There a Concentration Problem in America?. Six years later, our 2023 Conference addressed the future of antitrust enforcement beyond the Consumer Welfare Standard—and there was broad academic agreement that it is time to move antitrust policy and enforcement forward.
One of our most engaging panels discussed what is the impact of antitrust enforcement on the broader U.S. economy. There, Professor Chad Syverson from UChicago Booth asked whether there are good measures of how antitrust enforcement impacts aggregate productivity by influencing the creation and diffusion of general-purpose technology. This is a fair question, and one which deserves careful consideration by the broader antitrust community. For this reason, we plan to dedicate the first day of our 2024 Antitrust Conference—Competition, Regulation, and the Diffusion of Innovation—to discussing and answering Chad’s question. The idea is to have panels focused on studies that cover the overall impacts (or lack of impact) of antitrust enforcement on the US economy, as well as panels dedicated to specific case studies that can provide more in-depth insights on how antitrust enforcement has impacted innovation in the US and abroad.
In particular: We are looking for short contributions (up to 3,000 words) that provide evidence on how antitrust enforcement has impacted (or not) the creation and diffusion of innovation, and its effects on productivity growth more broadly. These may be studies that cover the connection between antitrust enforcement, innovation, and productivity at the economy-wide level, specific sectors of the economy, or even targeted case studies (for example, focusing on if and how enforcement actions against companies such as AT&T, IBM, Microsoft or Google have spurred innovation in specific industries).
The authors of the best submissions will be invited to present and discuss their articles at our 2024 Conference, which will take place in Chicago on April 18-19, 2024. We will also post the best submissions on ProMarket.org.
The Stigler Center would be happy to cover travel costs according to UChicago reimbursement policies.
We welcome submissions from scholars from all disciplines—based in the U.S. and abroad. Authors are also encouraged to submit pieces based on longer articles published elsewhere.
Deadline
Please submit your contributions by January 22, 2024 (11:59pm Chicago time) here.
Contact
Please direct any questions to Filippo Lancieri.
