The Digital Economy

The caution of Judge Amit Mehta’s remedy in the Google Search case is unlikely to open internet search to competition. Steve Salop recommends several amendments to the remedy that can improve competition without undercutting the revenue that has benefited Google’s partners to date.

Digital marketplaces make comparing credit lending options easier for potential borrowers. However, Jeromee "JJ" Johnson cautions that online platforms may be turning comparison itself into a signal to lenders—at a cost to applicants.

In new research, Anik Bhaduri discusses how current antitrust enforcement is insufficient to address the economic influence of Big Tech companies. He argues that their market power stems from their privileged position on financial markets and their unique organizational structures, and antitrust reforms should therefore be complemented with reforms to corporate and securities law to effectively address the concentration of private power.

An accounting rule introduced by the Financial Accounting Standards Board in 2016 was designed to address a flaw in the previous regime that contributed to the 2008 Financial Crisis. However, this same rule is enabling the circuit of investments that flows from Big Tech companies to artificial intelligence startups, whose increased valuation from these investments increases the value of the Big Tech companies, which they can then reinvest in the AI startups. The risk is an AI bubble that, if it pops, will also blow up Americans’ savings, writes Hera Hyeonseo Lee.

In new research, Louis Pape and Michelangelo Rossi find that the European Union’s Digital Markets Act’s prohibition on self-preferencing had little effect on the popularity of Google Maps relative to competitors. User preference for the incumbent service appears to outweigh frictional barriers to access.

In new research in collaboration with Color of Change, Dante Donati and Lena Song find that comments on social media posts help drive platform engagement for organizations. However, comment sections are often populated by a vocal minority, and adversarial comments from them come with reduced off-platform support for the original posters.

Artificial intelligence coding agents provide enormous value to consumers for very low fees. But the market is quickly shrinking with Anthropic in the lead. Only competition, and requiring Big Tech to build agents rather than buy them, will continue to let AI’s value flow to consumers. As such, the courts should ban SpaceX’s recently proposed acquisition of Cursor, writes Ketan Ahuja.

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.

American communities have begun to reject the construction of local data centers out of concern that they drive up electricity prices without returning durable and diversified job and other economic benefits. Jake Higdon writes that governments concerned about these risks should not only insulate consumers from higher prices, but also demand that data center investments be used to power reindustrialization efforts.