Commentary

What Saved American Democracy from Donald Trump?

Despite President Donald Trump's attempts to undermine it, the American democracy seems to have survived. We now need to analyze more closely...

The Silent Coup

President Donald Trump's seditious actions are exposing the political power that Twitter, Amazon, Google, Apple, and Facebook enjoy. Banning him from their...

We Must Stop Applying Economic Standards to Political Leadership

Joseph Schumpeter, ironically remembered for glorifying the entrepreneur’s penchant for creative destruction and innovation, actually warned against exalting entrepreneurs as the redeemers of...

Income-Driven Repayment Provides a Way to Offer Student Loan Forgiveness to Those Who Need It the Most

Direct loan cancellation is not the only policy option to lower student debt. If policymakers want more targeted loan forgiveness, aimed at lower income...

Little Law and No New Regulator: What’s Missing in the House Antitrust Report

The House Antitrust report spans 449 pages, 30 of which contain recommendations for antitrust reform. However, one of the most telling aspects...

The Death of Hong Kong’s Rule of Law

Hong Kong's rule of law has suffered a fatal blow. With the national security law, the authoritarian regime has all that it...

eBook: Milton Friedman 50 Years Later, a Reevaluation

Over the past couple of months, ProMarket has hosted a lively debate on whether Milton Friedman was right or wrong when he...

Bethany McLean’s Weekend Reading List: Wirecard, Women in the Workplace, and Social Safety Nets

Corruption, lobbying, corporate malfeasance, and frauds: a weekly unconventional selection of must-read articles by investigative journalist Bethany McLean. 

Beijing’s Erosion of Hong Kong’s Freedoms Has Been in the Works for Years

The wilting of civil and political freedoms in Hong Kong took a dramatic downturn since July after Beijing imposed its national security...

Friedman’s Legacy: From Doctrine to Theorem

Friedman was more right than his detractors claim and more wrong than his supporters would like us to believe. However, after 50...

Latest news

Revising the Merger Guidelines To Return Antitrust to a Sound Economic and Legal Foundation

The draft Merger Guidelines largely replace the consumer welfare standard of the Chicago School with the lessening of competition principle found in the 1914 Clayton Act. This shift would enable the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice Antitrust Division to utilize the full extent of modern economics to respond to rising concentration and its harmful effects, writes John Kwoka.

How Anthony Downs’s Analysis Explains Rational Voters’ Preferences for Populism

In new research, Cyril Hédoin and Alexandre Chirat use the rational-choice theory of economist Anthony Downs to explain how populism rationally arises to challenge established institutions of liberal democracy.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.