The Role of the State

“The World Has Changed”: the New York Times on Luigi Zingales, the “Chicago School,” and the Threat of Tech Monopolies

A New York Times profile summarizes the work done by Luigi Zingales and the Stigler Center on regulating digital platforms and describes it as...

The Cost of America’s Oligopoly Problem

An innovative new study finds substantial, increasing deadweight losses resulting from oligopolistic behavior and points to the important role that startup acquisitions—particularly by large...

The Hidden Risk in Bernie Sanders's Plan to Save Journalism: an Unholy Alliance Between Publishers and Tech Monopolists

Sanders's plan is important and laudable, but his proposal to use a tax on targeted advertising to fund journalism is dangerous.        Donald Trump is not the...

Standard Oil and Antitrust: the Effects of Aaron Director's Socratic Method

Aaron Director, who died 15 years ago, made important contributions to the analysis of business practices. None were ever published under his name. Professor...

Aaron Director’s Legacy: The Beginning of Doubt is the Beginning of Wisdom

Aaron Director died 15 years ago. He published almost nothing, but his ideas influenced a generation of economists and intellectuals. Professor Stephen Stigler remembers...

How Robert Bork Fathered the New Gilded Age

Much like in the first Gilded Age, antitrust enforcers today are hitting labor, not capital. This is thanks to Robert Bork’s radical and influential...

What Bernie Sanders’s Plan to Save American Journalism Gets Right – and What It Misses

Independent and effective news reporting is at the heart of the democratic process. The dangers to media plurality and local journalism that Sanders identifies...

The Limits of Private Action: What the Past 40 Years Taught Us About the Perils of Unregulated Markets

The two big ideas that animated American public policy since the end of World War II, employer-sponsored social benefits and neoliberalism, are failures. We...

How Amazon's Pricing Policies Squeeze Sellers and Result in Higher Prices for Consumers

Amazon's price matching policies, which were meant to ensure its dominant position, diminished the ability of brands to control how their products are distributed...

Global Declining Competition

Studies of the evolution of market power since 2000 have focused mostly on publicly traded US firms. This column introduces a new global study...

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