What seems to be a big reward to innovation ultimately reduces the incentive to innovate, argues a new Stigler Center working paper by Krishna Kamepalli, Raghuram Rajan, and Luigi Zingales. Their analysis of Google and Facebook’s acquisitions shows that “It is dangerous to apply twentieth-century economic intuitions to twenty-first-century economic problems.”
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Anat Admati calls on economists and academics to engage with governance and political economy issues, scrutinize models before applying them to the real world, and enhance the positive impact of their work.
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Corruption, lobbying, corporate malfeasance, and frauds: a weekly unconventional selection of must-read articles by investigative journalist Bethany McLean.
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A new SEC proposal regarding proxy advisors will make it harder for shareholders to vote against CEOs’ preferences. However, there is a 60-day period to comment and propose amendments to the new regulation. Please send your comments to the SEC and to ProMarket as well. We will publish the best of them on our website.
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The corruption exposed by Israeli antimonopolists has been a key driver of Benjamin Netanyahu’s current political woes.
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SEC Commissioner Robert Jackson dissented from his SEC colleagues’ proposal on how to reform proxy advisors regulation. New rules, he argues, would introduce a tax on firms who recommend that shareholders vote in a way that executives don’t like. Jackson’s analysis also shows that the proposed changes will remove key CEO accountability measures from the ballot.
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In a new episode of their podcast Capitalisn’t, Kate Waldock and Luigi Zingales discuss one of the most hated industries of America: private equity. Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has a plan to curb its abuses, but can it work?
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A recent Washington Post op-ed claimed that creating a digital authority to regulate Big Tech would be a disaster because of high costs and the risk of being captured by regulated companies. Fiona Scott Morton and Luigi Zingales defend the agency proposed by the Stigler Center’s report on digital platforms.
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Corruption, lobbying, corporate malfeasance, and frauds: a weekly unconventional selection of must-read articles by investigative journalist Bethany McLean.
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In an excerpt from his new book “Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber,” New York Times reporter Mike Isaac reveals the details of Uber’s fight against Portland authorities to enter the local market. Isaac will present his book at a Stigler Center and Harry L. Davis Center event on November 18.
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For companies that sell on Amazon’s platform, “winning the Buy Box”—the area on the right-hand side of the page that says “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now”—is everything. While Amazon says it’s a neutral arbiter, there is ample evidence that the company has rigged its algorithm to deliver outcomes that further its own interests at the expense of sellers and consumers.
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Bill Browder, Heritage Fund founder and the person behind the Magnitsky Act, will speak at the Stigler Center on November 8. Browder and professor Luigi Zingales will discuss crony capitalism in Russia and actions that could be taken to prevent Putin and the Russian oligarchs from corrupting the world.
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