ProMarket published 257 articles in 2024. Revisit some of our most popular pieces.
10. Erik Hovenkamp: What Does the Google Antitrust Decision Mean and Where Will It Take Us?
Erik Hovenkamp reviews the findings of Judge Amit Mehta’s ruling against Google for monopolizing the internet search market and discusses what the case will mean for the other ongoing Big Tech cases and the future of antitrust.
9. Yonghong An, Michael A. Williams, and Mo Xiao: High Prices and Market Power of Academic Publishing Reduce Article Citations
In new research, Yonghong An, Michael A. Williams, and Mo Xiao find that increases in an academic journal’s subscription price and its publisher’s market share lead to fewer article citations, hindering knowledge creation and research collaboration.
8. Ricardo Marco: Consumer Demand, Not Weak Competition, Explains Rise in Prices
In new research, Ricardo Marto finds that the rise of services in the United States explains the rise in firm markups over the last few decades rather than a lack of competition.
7. Richard John: How Tech Giants Make History
Richard R. John recounts how in the twentieth century the once-mighty Bell System, whose descendants include today’s Verizon and AT&T, waged a powerful decades-long public relations campaign, including the funding of history books and research centers, to persuade the public that its success rested in technological imperatives and economic incentives rather than a favorable regulatory landscape. Though the Bell PR campaign failed to stop three highly effective antitrust suits, it succeeded in establishing a story about management, competition, and innovation that many Americans—including several of today’s Big Tech critics—have uncritically repeated.
6. Hamid Mehran: How To Improve Governance of the Boeing Company
Hamid Mehran examines the governance failures at Boeing that led to safety issues with its aircraft and proposes several measures to improve the company’s safety culture and accountability. Mehran suggests enhancing board accountability through increased disclosure requirements, improving FAA oversight, fostering a culture that prioritizes safety and employee concerns, and restructuring employee compensation to incentivize teamwork and vigilance in detecting safety issues.
5. The ProMarket Big Tech-AI Investment Symposium
All four articles comprising our symposium evaluating the anticompetitive harms of Big Tech investments in AI startups ranked among our most popular articles of the year, with Matt Perault’s contribution coming it at number five.
4. Hubert Horan: Why Was JetBlue-Spirit Blocked and What Does it Mean for the Airline Industry?
A federal judge recently blocked the proposed merger of JetBlue and Spirit airlines on antitrust grounds, reversing antitrust enforcers’ recent history of waving through airline industry consolidation. However, while this decision affirms that mergers designed to reduce competition and raise prices violate antitrust law, it comes too late to undo the damage from 15 years of lax enforcement that allowed radical consolidation in the airline industry.
3. Sangyun Lee: The Korean Air-Asiana Airlines Merger Shows How Rational Actors May Produce Irrational Outcomes
Sangyun Lee reviews the 2021 merger between Korean Air and Asiana Airlines, which was promoted by the government despite warnings from the majority of experts deeming it obviously anticompetitive and harmful to consumers. He finds that the merger is a paragon of how, under institutional constraints, the rational choices of actors and organizations can collectively lead to irrational, suboptimal outcomes.
2. Ray Ball: Young People Are Shunning the Accounting Profession. The 150-Hour Rule Is Responsible
The supply of accountants in the United States is in serious decline due to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ decision in 1988 to raise entry requirements. Ray Ball argues that the rule change did not improve the quality or productivity of newly licensed accountants, but instead reflected the incentives of the Institute’s members to reduce entry to increase their own salaries.
1. Eugene Fama: Michael C. Jensen Tribute
Nobel Prize-winner Eugene F. Fama pays tribute to economist Michael C. Jensen, who passed away on April 2. Fama reminds us of Jensen’s unmatched career as a researcher and founder of the Journal of Financial Economics and SSRN.
The Next Five: Diana Moss, “Fans Last? How the Fans First Act Hands Live Nation-Ticketmaster More Market Power”; Will Macheel, “An Explainer on How Market Concentration Is Measured”; William McGee, “Refuting the Myths Defending the JetBlue-Spirit Merger”; Tommaso Valletti, “What Have The Consultants Ever Done For Us?”; Konrad Kollnig, “Chrome Is the Forgotten Fulcrum of Google’s Dominance.”
