News

Brazil’s new child protection law has gained less global press than its new digital competition bill. However, the two are complementary efforts that demonstrate how governments must rethink how different regulatory concerns and mandates blend into one another in the digital economy.

The proposed merger of local broadcast television station owners Nexstar and Tegna will create a behemoth that threatens to raise consumer prices for multi-video programming subscriptions, increase advertising rates for local businesses, and reduce viewers’ exposure to diverse viewpoints. The government can and should block the merger but politics threatens to usurp law and economics, writes Diana L. Moss.

In the second of two articles, Stavros Makris and Filip Lubinski discuss how governments can reimagine competition policy to protect democracy and citizen welfare without abandoning traditional consumer welfare goals like innovation.

In the first of two articles, Stavros Makris and Filip Lubinski discuss the connection between economic competition and democracy and how competition law allowed Big Tech to undermine both.

In new experimental research, Amit Zac and Michal Gal find that users who use artificial intelligence chatbots to conduct online shopping are being directed to established brands at higher prices without a clear improvement in quality. The logic of AI algorithms risks consolidating markets around established firms while reducing consumer welfare for shoppers.

Recent border carbon measures have relied on the theory that stricter environmental rules in rich countries push pollution-intensive production toward developing economies with weaker regulations. In new research, Irfan Saleem and Giray Gozgor show that the “pollution haven” mechanism is neither automatic nor uniform across industries. Evidence is mixed, often small in magnitude, and highly sensitive to how we measure regulation, model trade, and account for industry mobility.

The European Union can pursue financial sovereignty through the digital euro, but sovereignty over money doesn't mean sovereignty over the markets that form around it, writes Jeff Alvares.

If confirmed, Kevin Warsh would be the latest Federal Reserve chair whose career took place primarily on Wall Street rather than in academia. The ascent of Wall Street veterans in the Fed risks skewing monetary policy to favor large investors and the wealthiest, writes Franny Philos Sophia.

In new research, Michele Fioretti, Victor Saint-Jean, and Simon Smith show that NGO activism follows a clear economic logic: when NGOs lack visibility, stakeholders do not view them as credible, forcing them to rely on high-profile campaigns during annual shareholder meetings. However, these actions generate attention but rarely influence decisions. As NGOs gain recognition, they can campaign earlier, when votes are still open, and meaningfully sway shareholders and change corporate behavior.

In new research exploiting state-level changes in non-compete enforceability, Kate Reinmuth and Emma Rockall find that stronger non-competes have historically reduced innovation in the United States. These declines are driven by sharp drops in inventor mobility and knowledge spillovers, especially in young, high-growth sectors.