The Role of the State

Drawing on new research, Oles Andriychuk identifies eight defining features of the European Union’s and United Kingdom’s new laws to regulate competition in digital markets that transform how we understand competition policy.

Eric Posner discusses why many antitrust professionals believe the law follows economic interpretation, despite the absence of economics in the relevant statutes. He argues that antitrust laws themselves have been resistant to adopting a coherent "economic theory" approach, leading to a tension between the economic views of agencies and academics versus the legal interpretations taken by courts.

Similar to noncompete clauses in employment contracts, training repayment agreements, which require employees to pay back their employers for firm-sponsored training if they quit early, can impede worker mobility and reduce competition in labor markets. The authors document the pervasiveness and characteristics of these provisions and suggest directions for future research.

One of the questions that Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, raises is whether Microsoft’s involvement in changes to OpenAI’s board in November violated nonprofit law. Benjamin Leff assesses this challenge and if current nonprofit law is capable of monitoring nonprofit behavior in its current form.

Two professors of law assess the merits and questions raised by Musk's recent lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman.

The Public Companies Accounting Oversight Board has proposed an amendment to its auditing standards that requires auditors to assume a larger role in corporate compliance. Roy Shapira and Luigi Zingales suggest a simple modification that addresses auditors’ concerns while improving the effectiveness of corporate compliance.

Patent trolls are amassing portfolios of patents, not to produce goods but to shake down innovative firms that use these technologies as inputs for settlement fees. The Advancing America’s Interest Act is an important step to protecting American innovators and the United States economy, writes Roslyn Layton.

Looking back at the March 2023 collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the subsequent banking crisis, Stephen G. Cecchetti and Kermit L. Schoenholtz highlight two lessons that should guide the reform of bank regulation.

The European Commission has fined Apple for abusing its App Store. The Commission did not mention Spotify, but the fine appears to answer the music streaming platform’s complaint that Apple’s App Store fees to developers are too high. But now that Spotify has seen Apple’s new approach under Europe’s new Digital Markets Act, Spotify is still unhappy, highlighting the flaws of Spotify’s original complaint and the Commission’s fine, writes Randy Picker.

The 2023 banking crisis that took down four banks, including Silicon Valley Bank, by all appearances appears to have been resolved by public intervention. Yet, Viral Acharya and Raghuram Rajan argue, this leaves many of the underlying weaknesses that contributed to the bank failures unaddressed. Moreover, while the authorities’ temporary fixes have stopped the panic, the system will have to absorb more unrecognized losses over time.