The following is an excerpt from “The Division of Rationalized Labor” by Michelle Jackson, now out at Harvard University Press. 

COMMENTARY

The Political Economy of Brazil’s Pix Payment System

In the first of two articles, Jeff Alvares explores how Brazil’s public digital payments system achieved transformative financial inclusion through vertically integrated infrastructure, creating a model now facing scrutiny under international trade law and raising questions about the boundaries of legitimate public infrastructure provision.

RESEARCH

States Are Reshaping the Noncompete Landscape Even as a Federal Ban Disappears

In new research, Norman Bishara and Lorenzo Luisetto analyze the nature and proliferation of state legislative activity to regulate noncompete agreements since 2009. In the absence of a federal rule, these developments represent a promising step toward curbing the abuse of noncompete agreements.
spot_img
spot_img

A New Capitalisn’t Episode

Subscribe to promarket newsletter

Join our email newsletter

LATEST

Reputation-Seeking Investors Can Impose Costs on Fellow Shareholders

In new research, Michele Fioretti, Victor Saint-Jean, and Simon Smith show that shareholders with potential reputational gains will push for corporate actions in the face of shocks like Covid-19 or the Russian invasion of Ukraine that reduce returns to other shareholders who have no reputational gains at stake.

The Importance of PhD Transparency in Today’s Job Market

Is pursuing a PhD a worthwhile financial investment? In new research, Dwayne Benjamin, Boriana Miloucheva, and Natalia Vigezzi compare earnings of PhD graduates to other degree holders, highlighting that the high opportunity costs of pursuing a PhD aren’t always worth it.

Regulating the Digital Network Industry

Jasper van den Boom provides a synopsis of his new book, Regulating Competition in the Digital Network Industry, which comes out at Cambridge University Press in December. The book can be pre-ordered here.

The Politics of the Status Quo

The following is an excerpt from “Politics and Privilege: How the Status Wars Sustain Inequality” by Rory McVeigh, William Carbonaro, Chang Liu, and Kenadi Silcox, now out at Columbia University Press. 

Preventing AI Oligopoly and Digital Enclosure Via Compulsory Access

The largest artificial intelligence firms are able to afford access to quality data from content producers like the New York Times, while smaller startups are being left out. This dynamic risks concentrating markets and creating unassailable barriers to entry. Compulsory licenses offer one solution to lower barriers to entry for nascent AI firms without harming content producers and consumers, writes Kristelia García.

READING LISTS

Americans spend significantly more on health care than any other country. Why? Answers to this question range from hospital monopolies to perverse incentives to opaque pricing to medical licensing to pharmaceutical firms abusing IP practices to “creeping consolidation.” Why is the US health care system so broken? And what can antirust do about it? Catch-up on our coverage of antitrust and the US health care system.

Novo Nordisk’s Offer To Acquire Metsera Constitutes Attempted Monopolization

Hannah Pittock uses weight-loss company Novo Nordisk’s offer to acquire Metsera to create a three-prong framework by which the antitrust agencies can identify when an invitation to exclude a rival from a market constitutes illegal exclusionary conduct under Section 2 of the Sherman Act.

Novo Nordisk’s Killer Non-Acquisition Merger Contract Proposal Is a Case of “Heads I Win, Tails You Lose”

Steve Salop explores the anticompetitive innovation behind weight-loss giant Novo Nordisk’s offer to acquire Metsera. Novo’s proposed contract presents a new tactic by which firms with market power can preclude rival mergers that will lead to procompetitive entry.

Will Trump’s Drug-Pricing Order Reduce Prices for Americans?

President Donald Trump has, across two administrations, sought to lower drug prices for Americans, most recently with executive order “Delivering Most-Favored-Nation Prescription Drug Pricing to American Patients.” Margherita Colangelo explains why his order is unlikely to accomplish its goal.

Is Competition Law Making Us Sick?

In new research, Benjamin Wood, Sven Gallasch, Nicholas Shaxson, Katherine Sievert, and Gary Sacks write that competition underenforcement and a narrow regulatory focus on prices and output has allowed industries that produce harmful consumer products, such as tobacco or ultra-processed foods, to increase demand and, consequentially, harm to society. They argue that competition law must evolve to consider health impacts.

George J. Stigler, one of the most influential economists of the 20th century, won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 1982 “for his seminal studies of industrial structures, functioning of markets, and causes and effects of public regulation.” His research upended the idea that government regulation was effective at correcting private-market failures. Stigler introduced the idea of regulatory capture, in which regulators could be dominated by special interests. These regulators would work for the benefit of large, monied organizations rather than the public good. Catch up on ProMarket's coverage of his legacy.

Content Licensing Agreements Will Concentrate Markets Without Standardized Access

Christian Peukert argues that the market for licensing content from copyright owners like newspapers or online forums requires a standardized regime if access to this data, used to train artificial intelligence models, is to remain available for more than just the largest AI firms. A failure to maintain non-discriminatory access will result in the consolidation of both the AI and content production markets.

The False Hope of Content Licensing at Internet Scale

Is there a world where AI developers could get the training data they need through content licensing deals? Matthew Sag argues that content licensing deals between developers of artificial intelligence and content owners are only possible for large content owners and cannot feasibly apply to the bulk of producers and owners of content on the internet.

Anticompetitive Acquiescence in AI Content Licensing

Large AI firms like OpenAI and Amazon are licensing content to train their models that they might otherwise have been able to access for free under the fair use doctrine. Mark A. Lemley and Jacob Noti-Victor write that this behavior may constitute anticompetitive acquiescence—where large firms agree to license content they don’t have to in order to raise rivals’ costs.

Why the Controversy Behind ExxonMobil’s New Retail Voting Program?

ProMarket Managing Editor Andy Shi reviews the controversy behind ExxonMobil’s new voting program and how it falls into the broader debates over recent developments to shareholder democracy and corporate governance.

The Economics of Zohran Mamdani

Nikolaos Chatzarakis reviews some of the key economic platforms of New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. He argues that Mamdani’s platform is ambitious but not unrealistic, and that criticisms of it often rely on simplistic models and theory. Still, there remain areas for improvement.

How Should We Address the Amazon Web Services Outage?

Roslyn Layton examines the recent Amazon Web Services outage and compares it with last year’s CrowdStrike outage to illustrate differences in scope, responsibility, and systemic impact. She argues that cloud providers should contribute to the Universal Service Fund, ensuring financial contribution to resilience and critical infrastructure for essential services.

Does the Case of Apple’s App Store Indicate It’s Time for an American Digital Markets Act?

Nick Jacobson compares European and American enforcement to opening up the app store on Apple mobile phones, why European consumers and businesses are at an advantage, and if this advantage indicates that it is time for the United States to adopt legislation akin to the European Union’s Digital Markets Act.

COLUMNS

spot_imgspot_img