This week in political economy.
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Does Regulation Build Trust or Entrench Cliques? Lessons From Merchant Guilds and the Taxi Industry
Close-knit networks, like guilds and taxi associations, are helpful in enhancing trust and reliability. Yet they can also become exclusive and rent-seeking.
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Uber, the Mayor’s Private Email, and the Underground Lobbying Complex
The recent revelations regarding the interactions between Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel and former Uber executive and Obama adviser David Plouffe suggest that the real action in the U.S. lobbying game takes place under the surface. The billions of dollars invested in lobbying every year, and the thousands of registered lobbyists, are only the tip of the influence-peddling iceberg.
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How Can Antitrust Be Used to Protect Competition in the Digital Marketplace?
In this second part of our two-part interview with Maurice Stucke and Ariel Ezrachi, the two discuss how competition authorities can mitigate tacit collusion in the age of big data and artificial intelligence and how antitrust could adapt to the new dynamic of the market.
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Is the Digital Economy Much Less Competitive Than We Think It Is?
Maurice E. Stucke from the University of Tennessee Knoxville and Ariel Ezrachi of Oxford University explain how big data and artificial intelligence can be used to facilitate collusion and potentially harm consumers. The first part of a two-part interview.
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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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“If Uber Was a Government Program, There Would be Parades Thrown”: David Plouffe on Uber, Regulation, and Disruption
Uber’s chief advisor in a conversation with Chicago Booth professor Guy Rolnik: “We’re called a disruptive company—I think it’s more accurate to call us an additive company.”
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