Quinn Slobodian
Quinn Slobodian is the author of Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World without Democracy, out in 2023. His most recent book, Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism (Harvard University Press, 2018), won the American Historical Association’s George Louis Beer Prize and has been translated into seven languages. A frequent commenter on contemporary politics in the New York Times, Guardian and elsewhere, he is a visiting associate professor at Brown University for 2022 and Marion Butler McLean Professor of the History of Ideas at Wellesley College. He is also an associate fellow at Chatham House and co-director of the History and Political Economy Project.
Economic History
Neoliberalism Beyond the Heartlands
Much of the historical analysis of neoliberalism, both its ideological roots and its outcomes, has focused on U.S. and Europe, with figures...
Economic History
Are Intellectual Property Rights Neoliberal? Yes and No
Today’s global IP regime is often described by critical scholars bluntly as “neoliberal.” But in fact, the topic of intellectual property rights...
Latest news
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.
Antitrust and Competition
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.
Commentary
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.
Antitrust and Competition
Split the Legal, Economic and Policy Arguments of the Draft Merger Guidelines
To support the Agencies’ goals of stronger antitrust enforcement, Fiona Scott Morton recommends breaking the draft Merger Guidelines into three documents that clarify the Guidelines’ legal and economic justifications and overarching goals and priorities.
Antitrust and Competition
Randy Picker: A Brief for the Public?
Randy Picker provides his round-two comments on the draft Merger Guidelines.