Contrary to what Federal Trade Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen says, there is in fact no meaningful proof that consolidation generates social benefits.
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Certificate of Need Laws Show Entry Barriers Can Raise Spending
In most states, health care providers who seek to open a new hospital must obtain a “certificate of need” (CON) from a state board certifying that there is an “economic necessity” for their services. A new working paper published by the Mercatus Center finds that states with CON laws spend 3 percent more on health care than other states.
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SEC and Revolving Doors: Q&A with Eric Ben-Artzi, the Deutsche Bank Whistleblower Who Rejected a Multimillion Dollar Award
ProMarket interviews Eric Ben-Artzi, the former Deutsche Bank risk officer turned whistleblower who rejected an $8.25 million award from the SEC.
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Combatting External and Internal Regulatory Capture
External and internal capture may be reduced through a more logical division of labor between Congress and agencies.
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Regulators as Validators
Special interest groups can use their influence over regulation to water down not just potential legal sanctions but also potential reputational sanctions.
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Are “Pay for Delay” Settlements in Patent Litigation Collusive?
A new study suggests that “pay for delay” settlements–in which generic drug manufacturers that challenge the patents of branded drug firms agree to drop their challenge in exchange for sharing monopoly profits—decrease generic entry, inflate prices, and depress the quantity of competitors in the market. It also finds that eliminating “pay for delay” settlements entirely would result in a relatively small reduction in R&D.
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The Elusiveness of Regulatory Capture
Regulatory capture is hard to pin down, its elusiveness stemming from four principal factors.
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Regulatory Capture is Not “Inevitable”
“Capture” has become a self-fulfilling prophecy of economists who turn their students into sure-to-fail regulators.
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Prosecuting Corporate Criminals
Prosecutions of individual corporate criminals can, in fact, be successful—and are critical for attaining justice.
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Death by Regulation: How Regulations that Once Protected the Taxi Industry Now Threaten its Existence
New study by researchers at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University highlights the need to rethink taxi regulations.
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Regulatory Capture, Ancient and Modern
Regulatory capture’s antecedents in political thought—which date back to ancient Greece—inform the modern concept.
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Making it Look Like a Struggle
For capture to be sustainable, the regulator has to find ways to be perceived as being tough on the regulated without really hurting them.
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