The Role of the State

Kleptocracy is often thought to plague developing countries, but this grand corruption would be infeasible without the West’s financial and legal plumbing to launder misbegotten gains. American and European government initiatives to remedy their complicity have run aground or even reversed course, particularly in the United States under the new Trump administration, writes Alexander Cooley.

In new research, Adam Callister, Andrew Granato, and Belisa Pang argue that differing incentives faced by plaintiffs and defendants in “battles of the experts” litigation (like securities suits) leads to structurally higher spending by defendants on expert witnesses. These incentives also apply to any class action suit and many individual suits. They argue that courts should take this dynamic into account and correspondingly be more aggressive in using authority to employ court-appointed experts.

Fabio De Pasquale, a prosecutor at the Milan prosecutor’s office who led the investigation into energy conglomerates Eni and Shell for their alleged involvement...

Luke Herrine evaluates the Federal Trade Commission’s transformation into a political tool to advance a conservative social agenda. He argues that no FTC initiative better exemplifies the agency’s politicization than its investigation into gender-affirming care that threatens transgender rights and autonomy.

In new research, Dominic Smith and Sergio Ocampo show that retail concentration has increased in most markets across the United States, with the expansion of large retail chains driving the trend toward a more concentrated retail landscape. Their findings are based on new product-level census data for all U.S. retailers. They explain the implications of this increased concentration for the everyday shopping experience of clothing, electronics, groceries, and much more.

The following is an adapted excerpt from “Monopoly Politics: Competition and Learning in the Evolution of Policy Regimes” by Erik Peinert, now out at Oxford University Press. 

South Korea’s proposed Online Platform Regulation Act has taken multiple turns amid political upheaval, pressure from the United States, and a fiercely competitive domestic tech market. Hwang Lee explores how global geopolitics, strong domestic platforms, and the "Brussels Effect" are reshaping the country’s approach to digital regulation.

Corporations can sidestep prosecution by cooperating with the government and offering up employees to avoid their own criminal liability. Ellen S. Podgor discusses two prominent reasons why the current approach to corporate criminality is inefficient.

ProMarket interviews Magali Eben and Giorgio Monti about changes to the disclosure policy of the The Academic Society for Competition Law (ASCOLA) and the broader conversation on conflicts of interest in antitrust and competition scholarship.

In new research, Claire Liu and Jared Stanfield examine how relationships between corporate leaders and the United States president enable firms to capture regulation and avoid antitrust scrutiny.