Asher Schechter

ProMarket's former deputy managing editor. As a journalist, he has mostly covered issues related to the intersection between politics and the economy, such as antitrust, corruption, lobbying and social movements. Prior to joining the Stigler center, he worked for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz-TheMarker, where he was a senior features writer and still writes as a political columnist. He is the author of Rothschild: The Story of a Protest Movement (2012, Hakibbutz Hameuhad-Sifriat Poalim Publishing Group), a nonfiction book covering Israel’s social protests of 2011, and a World Economic Forum Global Shaper (New York Hub). He previously hosted The Cost of Doing Business, a twice-weekly podcast about business and economics in Israel. You can follow him on Twitter at @asherschechter.

Campaign Finance in the 2016 Election: With Federal Reform Unlikely, the Use of Super PACs has Become More “Brazen”

While it is still too early to draw any decisive conclusions regarding the role money played during this election cycle, some trends can already...

Why Have Soda Companies Funded Nearly 100 Health Organizations in the Last Five Years? Q&A With Michael Siegel

According to a new study, the world’s largest soda companies have sponsored 96 national health organizations during the last five years.  Last June, Philadelphia became...

Donald Trump and the Political Economy of Real Estate Tax in the US: Q&A With Professor Edward Kleinbard

Edward Kleinbard from the University of Southern California explains how Donald Trump was potentially able to lose nearly a billion dollars of his investors’...

Are Special Interests Dooming the Euro to Fail?

As the Eurozone struggles to stave off a lingering economic crisis, four economists debate the measures necessary to ensure its survival and what’s preventing...

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...

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...

Why is Medical Marijuana Still Not Accepted in All 50 States? Ask George Stigler

A new working paper by University of Georgia researchers shows that medical marijuana leads to sharp drops in the number of prescriptions for...

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...

“Why Argue With the Government When You Can Buy the Government?”: Q&A with Gary Reback

In an interview with ProMarket, antitrust lawyer Gary Reback elaborated on the difference between antitrust enforcement in the U.S. and Europe, the influence the U.S. Supreme...

Market Power and Inequality: How Big Should Antitrust’s Role Be in Reducing Inequality?

Is the rise of wealth inequality in the United States related to a decline in competition? A new paper answers in the affirmative. Is the...

Latest news

Revising the Merger Guidelines To Return Antitrust to a Sound Economic and Legal Foundation

The draft Merger Guidelines largely replace the consumer welfare standard of the Chicago School with the lessening of competition principle found in the 1914 Clayton Act. This shift would enable the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice Antitrust Division to utilize the full extent of modern economics to respond to rising concentration and its harmful effects, writes John Kwoka.

How Anthony Downs’s Analysis Explains Rational Voters’ Preferences for Populism

In new research, Cyril Hédoin and Alexandre Chirat use the rational-choice theory of economist Anthony Downs to explain how populism rationally arises to challenge established institutions of liberal democracy.

The Impact of Large Institutional Investors on Innovation Is Not as Positive as One Might Expect

In a new paper, Bing Guo, Dennis C. Hutschenreiter, David Pérez-Castrillo, and Anna Toldrà-Simats study how large institutional investors impact firm innovation. The authors find that large institutional investors encourage internal research and development but discourage firm acquisitions that would add patents and knowledge to their firms’ portfolios, hampering overall innovation.

The FTC Needs To Focus Arguments on Technological Transitions After High-Profile Losses

Joshua Gray and Cristian Santesteban argue that the Federal Trade Commission's focus in Meta-Within and Microsoft-Activision on narrow markets like VR fitness apps and consoles missed the boat on the real competition issue: the threat to future competition in nascent markets like VR platforms and cloud gaming.

We Need Better Research on the Relationship Between Market Power and Productivity in the Hospital Industry

Antitrust debates have largely ignored questions about the relationship between market power and productivity, and scholars have provided little guidance on the issue due to data limitations. However, data is plentiful on the hospital industry for both market power and operating costs and productivity, and researchers need to take advantage, writes David Ennis.

Debating the Draft Merger Guidelines: Transcript

On September 7, the Stigler Center hosted a webinar to discuss the draft merger guidelines. What follows is a slightly edited transcript of the event.

Holding Up the News

Meta has silenced news organizations’ social media accounts in response to Canada’s Online News Act, a law not yet in effect. Josh Braun describes the reasoning behind such legislation, its potential flaws, and how Meta, particularly Facebook, has turned the Canadian wildfire crisis into a regulatory pressure campaign.