Research

Millennials and Gen Z Are Willing to Accept Lower Wages to Work in More Sustainable Firms

Firms in more environmentally friendly sectors are better able to attract and retain talent and at lower wages. Millennials and Gen Z,...

How Corporate Purpose Affects Firms

A company’s purpose is a core aspect of the organization: it influences the financial performance of company, and relates to its ownership...

What Happens When Multinationals Appear in Reporting on Activist Assassinations? High-Profile Media Has Bite

A new report finds that being linked to human rights abuses—merely appearing in reporting around high-profile events—can significantly influence a company’s stock...

Lack of Trust in Doctors Undermines Covid-19 Vaccination Strategy

Recent data from the Financial Trust Index (FTI) reveals that Americans are not as willing to be vaccinated as the government expects....

Why Is All Covid-19 News Bad News?

A new paper finds that media coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic, including vaccine development, tends to be more negative in the US...

What Is the Price of a Prescription Drug?

Due to lack of transparency and mystery rebates, which are considered trade secrets, figuring out the price of a prescription drug is...

The Effects of Student Debt Forgiveness

While student loan forgiveness is undoubtedly expensive, research suggests that individuals whose debt is forgiven get better jobs, experience higher mobility, and...

Giving Away Our Data for Free is a Market Failure

By convincing users to give away their data for free, digital platforms have caused a market failure. This failure benefits them and...

The End of the Capitalist-Worker Dichotomy and the Rise of a New Elite?

Economists typically assume that capitalists and workers are different people. A new study, however, finds that the intersection between the top decile...

The “Next Frontier of Propaganda”: Micro-Influencers are Paid to Spread Political Messages, Disinformation

Online influencers aren’t in the business of promoting just products anymore. New research finds that micro-influencers are increasingly used to spread political...

Latest news

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.