Research

Victor Jiawei Zhang revisits the 2025 United States ban on TikTok and explores how it represented a case study of how the government led users to act collectively to override network effects and introduce competition to the digital market. The case study highlights research from his new article, “Digital Antitrust Collectivism,” where he explores the possibility that users’ collective power can invigorate digital market competition.

Across three studies, Jana Friedrichsen, Julia Schwarz, and Michel Clement explore how generative AI will change the music industry. They find that while consumers enjoy and even prefer AI-generated music, preferences shift upon learning that the song was AI-generated.

In new research, Jongkwan Lee, Giovanni Peri, and Hee-Seung Yang assess the effects of a sudden reduction in immigrant workers in South Korea. They find that migrant workers were not easily replaceable by natives, resulting in operational disruptions and firm closures.

The European Union and its member states are quickly updating merger rules to address killer acquisitions and the economics of digital platforms. In a new article published in the Antitrust Law Journal, Anna Tzanaki explores how these endeavors challenge the institutional design of EU merger control and how this design can evolve to tackle new economic and geopolitical problems without forfeiting founding legal principles.

Trade wars between the United States and Canada have sharply reduced the number of Canadian tourists traveling to the U.S. In new research, André Kurmann, Étienne Lalé, and Julien Martin use novel methods to measure how this decline in tourism has negatively impacted American workers and communities.

Firms may file a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) against civil society to silence criticism for socially harmful activity, such as the use of dirty technologies. In new research, Swarnodeep Homroy finds that legal protections for free speech push firms to address some of these criticisms by developing new technologies.

In new research, Cree Jones, Tyler B. Lindley, and Thomas Smith investigate how restrictions on the president to remove independent agency officials affect agency behavior. Such restrictions have historically had surprisingly little effect. However, recent political polarization has drastically increased the importance of removal restrictions in blocking political influence.

In new research, Yoan Hermstrüwer and David Imhof analyze how AI can help antitrust authorities predict cartels by assessing international bidding data in countries with similar legal and market structures.

In new research, Luis Armona and Adam Rosenberg argue that current state firearm excise taxes inadequately address gun-related crimes. They propose a tax that benefits society by targeting guns responsible for the most homicides, while accommodating the challenging political economy of firearms regulation in the United States.

In a recent article, Kate M. Conlow explores how feeble requirements among the American academic economics community to disclose conflicts of interest are compromising research and harming policymaking.