Two much-discussed new studies argue that market power is on the rise not only in the United States, but also around the world. Here, James Traina of the University of Chicago argues that this claim is likely an artifact of mismeasured production costs.
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In a recent review of Paul Tucker’s new book Unelected Power (extracted here for ProMarket), Diane Coyle of the University of Manchester and the consultancy Enlightenment Economics took issue with Tucker’s application of his principles of delegation of power to competition policy. Luigi Zingales, in turn, addressed her objections with the following note on her review.
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UChicago Law’s Randy Picker puzzles over the rationale behind last week’s multibillion-euro fine on Google by the European Commission. While the decision makes a statement about acceptable market entry paths for dominant firms, it also appears to undervalue the benefits of business model competition, he writes.
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Throughout his judicial career, the US president’s latest nominee to the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, has written three antitrust opinions. Here, Stephen Calkins of Wayne State University Law School reviews the trends that emerge from those opinions.
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The rumors of Facebook’s newfound vulnerability have been greatly exaggerated; Google reportedly employs more contractors than actual employees; Britain has a monopoly problem; and can consumers resist companies’ market power?
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Understanding how inequalities in health and inequalities in income are connected is key for policymaking. New research analyzing mortality trends in the United States and France finds that inequalities in income and health do not necessarily move in tandem and that public policy can help to break the link.
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The recent AT&T and Amex decisions showcase the pitfalls of considering antitrust cases solely on the basis of economic analysis and may have the effect of immunizing tech giants from serious antitrust scrutiny, argue Marshall Steinbaum of the Roosevelt Institute and James Biese in this op-ed.
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The EU’s record-breaking antitrust fine against Google might be too little, too late; Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg thanks one of his biggest advertisers, President Trump; the FCC likely dooms the Sinclair-Tribune merger; and can economists and humanists ever be friends?
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The Chinese government has invested heavily in surveillance systems that exploit information on social media. This column shows that these systems are very effective, even in their simplest form. From the government’s point of view, social media, although unattractive as a potential outlet for organised social protest, is useful as a method to surveil protests, monitor local officials, and disseminate propaganda.
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Scandal-rocked FIFA has sought to scrub up its image by bringing in ostensibly disinterested outsiders to fill oversight roles. Here, Steven A. Bank argues that internal whistleblowers are in fact better suited to improving the organizational culture that led to FIFA’s corruption.
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Brett Kavanaugh is expected to bring his pro-business bent to the Supreme Court; the DOJ is appealing the AT&T-Time Warner merger approval; Britain fines Facebook and the EU is expected to fine Google; and who really benefits from the GOP’s tax cuts?
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Is the United States becoming more culturally divided across racial, gender, income, religious, geographic and political lines? New research from SMU and UCLA finds rising divisions since the early 2000s. But this is not happening across all identity cleavages, and the divisions have not reached historically unprecedented levels.
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