Facebook’s WhatsApp finds itself at the center of Brazil’s political upheaval; the EU is pushing ahead with its planned tax on tech platforms; Trump’s replacement for NAFTA entrenches tech monopolies; and why does Uber love economists?
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“In the Wake of the 2008 Crisis, You Can’t Ignore the Influence of Big Business on Economic Policy”
Historian and author Adam Tooze talks to ProMarket about how the financial crisis “remade” American capitalism, why the US response to the crisis was “nakedly oligopolistic,” and how Europe could have solved its own crisis if it had an organized oligopoly of its own.
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Implicit Government Involvement In The Puerto Rican Debt Crisis
Why were Puerto Rico’s economic and financial troubles not reflected in its bond yields prior to its 2016 default? A Stigler Center working paper explores the possibility that this puzzle is related to government involvement in financial markets.
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Does Uber Kill? The Real Cost of Ride-sharing
A new Stigler Center working paper finds that ride-sharing actually increases the number of new car registrations and fatal accidents.
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Editors’ Briefing: This Week in Political Economy (September 22–29)
Facebook’s bad week included a new security breach, high-profile resignations and damaging exposés; tech giants are spending billions on physical infrastructure and lobbying for new federal privacy rules; and what is Google trying to achieve with its sponsorship of media organizations?
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Editors’ Briefing: This Week in Political Economy (July 27–August 4)
Apple hits the coveted $1 trillion mark—thanks to share buybacks; Senator Mark Warner’s proposals to regulate social media platforms make waves; Google is reportedly planning to launch a censored version of its search engine in China; and what’s behind the public battle between President Trump and the Koch brothers for control of the GOP?
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Editors’ Briefing: This Week in Political Economy (July 7–14)
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 Lionizing CEOs Dangerous for Society?
In an interview with ProMarket, Open University’s Peter Bloom talks about his provocative new book CEO Society and why he believes celebrating corporate CEOs too much erodes democratic values.
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On Science Advancing One Funeral at a Time
Do star scientists erect barriers to entry for newcomers in their fields? Pierre Azoulay and Joshua Graff Zivin bring some data to the question raised in that famous quip from physicist Max Planck on how scientific progress really happens.
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Do Wages in High-Earning Sectors Always Reflect Skills?
Did the soaring wages in finance go in hand with a better selection of talented individuals into the sector? The evidence suggests no.
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This Is What Monopoly Looks Like: The Italian Tobacco Sector in the Late 19th Century
How does a monopolist know what prices to charge to extract the most profit? A new paper digs into the classic monopolist’s problem with a look at the tobacco monopoly in the 19th century Kingdom of Italy.
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How US Voters React to Immigration in the Voting Booth May Depend on Both Immigrants’ and Native Residents’ Skill Levels
A new working paper has revealed two strikingly divergent correlations between increases in high-skilled and low-skilled immigration and change in Republican vote share since 1994.
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