Seth G. Benzell
Seth Benzell is an economist and assistant professor at Chapman University, Argyros School of Business and Economics. Seth is a Fellow of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab and the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy. His research primarily focuses on the intersection of technology, economics, and public policy. He explores the economic and welfare effects of social media and how digital and social networks impact productivity, innovation, and society. He is also interested in the effects of digitization, automation and artificial intelligence on labor markets and economic growth.
Antitrust and Competition
Antitrust Needs Better Models for Estimating Social Welfare in the Digital Age
In a forthcoming article, Seth Benzell and Felix Chang explore how antitrust regulators can use insights from a new quantitative model of...
Antitrust and Competition
70 Years of US Corporate Profits
A new Stigler Center working paper shows that after decades of decline, profits started increasing in the early 1980s.
Financial profit is ostensibly the...
Latest news
Antitrust and Competition
The Kroger-Albertsons Merger Will Not Help Grocery Competition
Kroger and Albertsons say they need to merge to compete with Walmart. Claire Kelloway argues that what they really want is Walmart’s monopsony power, and permitting mergers on these grounds will only harm suppliers, workers, and consumers.
Research
Innovators Respond to Their Presidential Candidate Winning With More Innovation
Does an inventor’s political identity influence their productivity? In a new paper, Joseph Engelberg, Runjing Lu, William Mullins, and Richard Townsend examine the impacts of the 2008 and 2016 United States presidential elections on Democrat and Republican inventors, with a particular focus on the quantity and quality of patents after the country elects a new president.
Antitrust and Competition
Letter to the Editor: Former FTC and DOJ Chief Economists Urge Separation of Economic and Legal Analysis in Merger Guidelines
Seventeen former chief economists of the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice Antitrust Division urge current Agency heads to separate the legal and economic analysis in the draft Merger Guidelines to strengthen the role of the latter in merger review.
Antitrust and Competition
Why the Kroger-Albertsons Merger Is a Mess for Consumers
Grocers Kroger and Albertsons want to merge, which would make them the second biggest retail food chain and, according to them, enhance their ability to compete with Walmart and Costco and offer lower prices to consumers. Christine P. Bartholomew writes that the promises of more competition and lower prices for consumers are unlikely to manifest, and thus the Federal Trade Commission should block the deal. Â
Book Excerpts
After Neoliberalism
The following is an excerpt from Martin Daunton's new book, "The Economic Government of the World: 1933-2023," out November 14.
Antitrust and Competition
US Taxpayers Should Not Be Subsidizing Harmful Big Oil Mergers
Chevron and ExxonMobil claim their announced mergers with Hess and Pioneer take advantage of market efficiencies, but a closer look reveals an antiquated tax provision likely sweetening these dangerous deals. Antitrust authorities must carefully review the serious risks entailed in these proposed mergers. In parallel, the United States federal government needs to end large tax-free reorganizations—the most egregious way in which American taxpayers are subsidizing monopolistic practices, writes Niko Lusiani.
Book Excerpts
Seeing Others
In an excerpt from her new book, Seeing Others, sociologist Michèle Lamont describes the impact of neoliberal ideas on the working class.
