Yair Eilat

Yair Eilat served until recently as the Chief Economist and Deputy Director General of the Israel Antitrust Authority. He also served as the Acting Director General on various matters. Dr. Eilat is currently a Senior Consultant with the North American practice of Compass Lexecon. He has more than 15 years of experience consulting to companies and government agencies, in the US and worldwide, on various antitrust, competition and policy matters. He submitted expert testimony to several government agencies, including the DOJ, FTC, SEC, the EC, and the CBC. Dr. Eilat also worked as a researcher at the Harvard Institute for International Development and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and as an economic advisor to the Economics Committee and State Audit Committee of the Israeli parliament. Dr. Eilat has written policy reports and published in academic journals in the fields of industrial organization and economic development and has taught at several academic institutes. Dr. Eilat holds a PhD in economics from Harvard University and a B.A. in Law and Economics from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

The New Brandeis Movement and International Antitrust Enforcement

US competition authorities’ top officials, being appointed by a recently-elected president to represent the will of the voters, have the legitimacy to...

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Why Have Uninsured Depositors Become De Facto Insured?

Due to a change in how the FDIC resolves failed banks, uninsured deposits have become de facto insured. Not only is this dangerous for risk in the banking system, it is not what Congress intends the FDIC to do, writes Michael Ohlrogge.

Merger Law Reaches Acquirer Incentives and Private Equity Strategies

Steven C. Salop argues that Section 7 of the Clayton Act prohibits mergers in which the acquiring firm’s unilateral incentives and business strategy are likely to lessen market competition.

Tim Wu Responds to Letter by Former Agency Chief Economists

Former special assistant to the president for technology and competition policy Tim Wu responds to the November 27 letter signed by former chief economists at the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department Antitrust Division calling for a separation of the legal and economic analysis in the draft Merger Guidelines.

Can the Public Moderate Social Media?

ProMarket student editor Surya Gowda reviews the arguments made by Paul Gowder in his new book, The Networked Leviathan: For Democratic Platforms.

Uninhibited Campaign Donations Risks Creating Oligarchy

In new research, Valentino Larcinese and Alberto Parmigiani find that the 1986 Reagan tax cuts led to greater campaign spending from wealthy individuals, who benefited the most from this policy. The authors argue that a very permissive system of political finance, combined with the erosion of tax progressivity, created the conditions for the mutual reinforcement of economic and political disparities. The result was an inequality spiral hardly compatible with democratic ideals.

Did the Meme Stock Revolution Actually Change Anything?

Many financial commentators thought that the surge of retail investors participating in the stock market, the most notable of whom boosted “meme stocks” like GameStop, would democratize corporate governance and improve prosocial firm behavior, including the promotion of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals. In new research, Dhruv Aggarwal, Albert H. Choi, and Yoon-Ho Alex Lee find evidence that the exact opposite took place.

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.