David Lawsky
David Lawsky was with Reuters for 22 years in Washington, Brussels and San Francisco. He covered Silicon Valley in San Francisco and competition in Brussels and Washington. In Washington, David also covered Capitol Hill, the Justice Department and presidential elections. Earlier, he was press secretary to Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, Washington editor at National Public Radio, taught journalism part time at the University of Maryland and was on the Board of Governors of the National Press Club. David holds a Master’s in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Bachelor’s in English from San Francisco State College. David is a citizen of both the US and Belgium.
Covid-19
The Virus Outbreak Changed the Democratic Primaries: Sanders Is Running on Borrowed Time
Joe Biden swept Florida, Illinois, and Arizona on Tuesday, jumping ahead to 1,173 of the 1,991 delegates he needs to win the presidential nomination....
Money in Politics
Why Elizabeth Warren Has Not Endorsed Joe Biden (Yet)
After winning in four more states, Biden can expect to have the necessary 1,991 delegates long before the July Democratic convention in Milwaukee. Elizabeth Warren...
Commentary
Sanders Is Leading the Democratic Primaries, but Don't Bet on an Open Convention
Bernie Sanders is a polarizing front-runner, but there are many reasons to believe the Democratic convention this summer is unlikely to repeat the drama...
Money in Politics
How to Choose a President: The Electoral College and an Argument Whose Time Has Gone
Two of the three presidents in this century, George Bush and Donald Trump, initially won office by coming in second in the popular vote. The...
Latest news
Antitrust and Competition
Revising Guideline 6 With Evidence To Establish a Structural Inference for Input Foreclosure
Vertical merger law lacks the structural presumption of horizontal merger law, which shifts the burden from the government to the merging parties to provide evidence that a merger will not produce anticompetitive effects when it is known that the merger will substantially increase market concentration. To improve Guideline 6 of the draft Merger Guidelines concerning vertical foreclosure, Steven Salop develops a three-factor criteria with which the government antitrust agencies can show an analogous structural “inference” that shifts the burden of evidence to the merging parties.
Antitrust and Competition
How US Antitrust Enforcement Against Xerox Promoted Innovation by Japanese Competitors
Xerox invented modern copier technology and was so successful that its brand name became a verb. In 1972, U.S. antitrust authorities charged Xerox with monopolization and eventually ordered the licensing of all its copier-related patents. As new research by Robin Mamrak shows, this antitrust intervention promoted subsequent innovation in the copier industry, but only among Japanese competitors. Nevertheless, their innovations benefited U.S. consumers.
Antitrust and Competition
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.
Economic History
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.
Antitrust and Competition
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.
Antitrust and Competition
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.
Commentary
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.
