A look back at some of the popular webinars, minicourses, and conversations the Stigler Center hosted in 2024.
Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology
On April 11th 2024, Filippo Lancieri (Georgetown Law) chatted with Anu Bradford (Columbia) on topics from Bradford’s recent book, Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology.
Can Antitrust Save Democracy? Insights from Europe
This two-day minicourse from Maciej Bernatt (University of Warsaw) on April 24th and 25th investigated the relationship between competition (antitrust) law and democracy, with a focus on media markets. It relied on the experiences of EU countries that have experienced democratic backsliding to examine whether merger review by competition agencies can help preserve competitive media markets and media plurality. It also analyzed any added value the proposed EU regulation of media markets may have in this respect. The course contributed to the broader debate on how to (better) control the market power of firms that pose risks to democracies.
Moral Boundaries in Political Economy
Moral considerations are deeply intertwined with economics and politics. However, economists have traditionally paid little attention to morality. On October 8th 2024, Benjamin Enke (Harvard) outlined the growing economics literature on the relationship between economics and morality, the different approaches to morality, and how these impact politico-economic outcomes. Enke highlighted how the analytical toolkit of economics has facilitated progress in the study of morality and politics, thus illuminating a wide range of important issues, such as voter behavior, policy preferences, and beyond.
How Conflicts of Interest Impact the Marketplace of Ideas
In fall 2024, United States Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter spoke about a “crisis of expertise in our antitrust and competition community,” due to rampant conflicts of interest among academic researchers. Researchers are conflicted when they have an interest (financial, career-related, or ideological) in their findings pointing in a particular direction (e.g. a corporate merger being beneficial). Is Kanter right? Is the problem limited to the antitrust community? What can be done about it?
In this webinar on October 16th, Filippo Lancieri (Georgetown Law) and Luigi Zingales (Chicago Booth) shared key findings from their new timely paper, The Conflict-of-Interest Discount in the Marketplace of Ideas. Together with Stefano Feltri (Bocconi) they explored how to navigate these critical issues to build stronger foundations for trustworthy science.
The Age of Outrage: How to Lead in a Polarized World
The Stigler Center and Rustandy Center co-hosted Karthik Ramanna (University of Oxford) on October 31st for a conversation on his new book, The Age of Outrage: How to Lead in a Polarized World, moderated by Chicago Booth’s John Paul Rollert. Together they explored how leaders and their teams can navigate and thrive in today’s polarized environment.
