The Role of the State

According to a poll conducted by ProMarket at the Stigler Center Antitrust and Competition Conference, experts were skeptical about the Department of Justice's antitrust case against Apple, with 54% believing it had the lowest odds among the five Big Tech antitrust cases of a ruling in favor of the government. In contrast, the experts were more optimistic about the government's chances in the Google AdTech case, with 52% saying it had the best odds for a government win, and another 21% favoring the Google Search case.

Jonathan Masur and Eric Posner argue that the Federal Trade Commissions’ recent ban on noncompete clauses is lawful under the plain language of the Federal Trade Commission Act, longstanding court precedent, and well-established administrative law principles.

Recent contributions from Enrico Letta, Mario Draghi, and Emmanuel Macron are exposing however deep concerns that the European project is floundering. Cristina Caffarra writes that Letta, Draghi and Macron are collectively making an urgent call to tackle the reality of a “divided bloc” that has lost ground, rethink industrial policy, public good investments and reformulate traditional trade-offs. Explicitly acknowledging the end of the neoliberal vision that still occupies many European institutions (from antitrust to trade to industrial policy) will be important to “join the dots” and make the trade-offs clearer.

Municipal and state governments provide input to the organization that creates their accounting standards. Such input by stakeholders can be helpful, but their influence has produced some accounting rules that diverge from both economic reality and private sector rules. These deviations allow governments to understate budget liabilities, including pensions plans, and put at risk the financial health of states and cities across the United States.

Luis Braido builds on Eric Posner and Carl Shapiro’s debate about the role of economics in merger review by further exploring the tension between efficiency and consumer welfare. He argues that efficiency merits endorsement as it boosts productivity, wealth, and social welfare. Nevertheless, he acknowledges that the law favors competition and consumer welfare over efficiency. From his perspective, enlarging the range of remedies available in merger review is central for protecting productivity gains while preserving competition and compensating consumers for adverse impacts.

Academics have argued that changes in product markup trends show that the European markets, abetted by the adoption of the Single Market and stronger antitrust enforcement, have become more competitive over the last half-century, whereas American markets have become more concentrated. In their research, Tommaso Crescioli and Angelo Martelli argue that a study of labor market power in Europe muddles this picture of higher competition in Europe.

Single-name credit default swaps help investors manage risk, but the 2023 financial crisis showed how these opaque derivatives can suddenly throw financial markets into turmoil. Randy Priem argues that mandatory central clearing, which some authorities have suggested as a solution to managing this risk, is not the holy grail solution they believe it to be.

Local governments in the United States spend trillions of dollars each year delivering essential services and infrastructure, with enormous implications for our economy and quality of life. Chris Berry and Justin Marlowe examine the links between municipal governance structures and fiscal outcomes, revealing the state of municipal finances today.

Fiona Scott Morton and David Dinielli show how landmark antitrust cases historically have cleared the path for innovation in the next “frontier technology.” But with closing arguments in the search monopoly case just days away, Google threatens to evade this round of rigorous new competition. It reportedly is in talks to place its own artificial intelligence tool on Apple devices as it did in the case of search. Such a maneuver would entrench Google’s search monopoly and place Google in the driver’s seat to steer the development of consumer-facing AI. The authors offer up a menu of steps the government might take now to thwart Google’s new anticompetitive strategy and preserve competition in AI before it’s too late.

The Department of Justice is rumored to be planning to sue Live Nation-Ticketmaster for monopolizing markets for live events. Diana L. Moss explores what potential remedies the government might pursue to address competitive harms in markets such as ticketing for concert venues and sports arenas, and ticket resale, including the viability of breaking up the company.