Regulatory Capture

George Stigler’s Paper on Regulation and the Rise of Political Economy

George Stigler’s “The Theory of Economic Regulation” is not just the founding paper of economics of regulation. It is also a founding...

Of Antitrust and Patents: the Quiet Return of the Status Quo at the DOJ’s Antitrust Division

Without Senate-confirmed political leadership, the Department of Justice quietly reverts to an Obama-era policy that favors Big Tech.

Stigler’s Interest-Group Theory of Regulation: A Skeptical Note

As a rule, regulation is not acquired by “the industry,” and it is not designed and operated primarily for its benefit. The...

The Durable Impact of Stigler’s Theory of Economic Regulation

George Stigler’s “The Theory of Economic Regulation” was an early application of public choice reasoning to a practical problem—the work of regulatory...

Economic Regulation After George Stigler

George Stigler’s “The Theory of Economic Regulation” has left a lasting impact on the academic and real-world practice of regulatory policy. Fifty...

The Texas Power Failure: How One Market Model Discovered Its Natural Limits

Relying on marginal market prices to provide the incentives for the production and delivery of electricity means that all of the biophysical...

The Texas Blackouts and the Problems of Electricity Market Design

Even in an ideal electricity market, reliability is an elusive and precarious byproduct of companies’ search for profits. Since market designers are...

Morale At the DOJ’s Antitrust Division Has Plummeted. Here’s How to Fix It

The Biden administration should work to reverse the declining morale since a re-energized Antitrust Division will translate into more effective, innovative enforcement...

OpenLux: Why the Era of Financial Secrecy Needs to End

The #OpenLux investigation underlines that, despite undeniable progress in terms of transparency, there is still considerable work to be done in the...

OpenLux: Despite Reform Efforts, Luxembourg Remains an “Offshore Hub in the Heart of Europe”

Dozens of foreign citizens linked to corruption, embezzlement of public funds, organized crime, and tax crime have opened companies in Luxembourg, seemingly...

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Creation over Time in Copyright and Patent

On May 18, the United States Supreme Court decided two intellectual property cases with two seemingly different results. A closer look, however, reveals a complimentary concern with the monopolistic power of first movers and how the legal system should enable innovation from second movers over time, writes Randy Picker.

ESG Standards’ Good, Bad and Ugly

The Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State hosted a virtual event discussing the standards, metrics and disclosures of investments focused on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) goals. The following is a transcript of the event.

Reregulate.

Lee Hepner and William J. McGee respond to Clifford Winston’s ProMarket piece asserting that further deregulation of the airline industry would resolve problems in the industry. Instead, the authors claim a return to regulation would produce better results for travelers.

A World With Far Fewer Mergers

Brooke Fox and Walter Frick analyze research and ideas presented at the Stigler Center Antitrust and Competition Conference that question the value of mergers.

The Banking Risks of Central Bank Digital Currencies

The implementation of central bank digital currencies as the primary medium of exchange would exacerbate the flaws of our current fiat system which encourage banks to overextend credit and create liabilities that they cannot redeem. This will worsen the already recurring cycles of financial crises, writes Vibhu Vikramaditya.

The Whig History of the Merger Guidelines

A pervasive "Whig" view of United States antitrust history among scholars and practitioners celebrates the Merger Guidelines' implementation of increasingly sophisticated economic methods since their...

Algorithmic Collusion in the Housing Market

While the development of artificial intelligence has led to efficient business strategies, such as dynamic pricing, this new technology is vulnerable to collusion and consumer harm when companies share the same software through a central platform. Gabriele Bortolotti highlights the importance of antitrust enforcement in this domain for the second article in our series, using as a case study the RealPage class action lawsuit in the Seattle housing market.