Antitrust and Competition

American Antitrust Is Having a Moment: Some Reactions to Commissioner Ohlhausen’s Recent Views

Contrary to what Federal Trade Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen says, there is in fact no meaningful proof that consolidation generates social benefits. Editor's note: In...

Are “Pay for Delay” Settlements in Patent Litigation Collusive?

A new study suggests that “pay for delay” settlements–in which generic drug manufacturers that challenge the patents of branded drug firms agree to drop...

What Role for Antitrust in the Era of Rising Inequality? The Importance of Power in Supply Chains

Concentration of power in supply chains is a prime mechanism by which dominant companies consolidate power and profits. The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 was...

“Why Argue With the Government When You Can Buy the Government?”: Q&A with Gary Reback

In an interview with ProMarket, antitrust lawyer Gary Reback elaborated on the difference between antitrust enforcement in the U.S. and Europe, the influence the U.S. Supreme...

Market Power and Inequality: How Big Should Antitrust’s Role Be in Reducing Inequality?

Is the rise of wealth inequality in the United States related to a decline in competition? A new paper answers in the affirmative. Is the...

Is More Antitrust the Answer to Rising Wealth Inequality?

University of Michigan professor Daniel Crane: “The story that somehow antitrust law is dead, that it’s been killed, is wrong. It hasn’t. It’s very...

Horizontal Shareholding, Antitrust, Growth and Inequality

Harvard Law School professor Einer Elhauge goes back to the days of Thurman Arnold, the head of the antitrust division in the FDR administration,...

Intergenerational Mobility, Guilds and Income in the Very Long Run

New paper compares tax records for family dynasties in Florence in 1427 and 2011, and finds that the top earners of the present day...

How to End Too-Big-To-Fail? At Minneapolis Fed Symposium, Participants Reject Big Bank Breakup

Former Fed chairman Ben Bernanke: "Size is not the only relevant attribute of banks.” Should big banks be broken up in order to ensure the...

“The President’s Executive Order is Pro‑Market and Anti‑Abusive Market Power”

Ten days after the White House issued an executive order and a brief that highlights growing concentration and decreasing competition in the US economy,...

Latest news

Why Have Uninsured Depositors Become De Facto Insured?

Due to a change in how the FDIC resolves failed banks, uninsured deposits have become de facto insured. Not only is this dangerous for risk in the banking system, it is not what Congress intends the FDIC to do, writes Michael Ohlrogge.

Merger Law Reaches Acquirer Incentives and Private Equity Strategies

Steven C. Salop argues that Section 7 of the Clayton Act prohibits mergers in which the acquiring firm’s unilateral incentives and business strategy are likely to lessen market competition.

Tim Wu Responds to Letter by Former Agency Chief Economists

Former special assistant to the president for technology and competition policy Tim Wu responds to the November 27 letter signed by former chief economists at the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department Antitrust Division calling for a separation of the legal and economic analysis in the draft Merger Guidelines.

Can the Public Moderate Social Media?

ProMarket student editor Surya Gowda reviews the arguments made by Paul Gowder in his new book, The Networked Leviathan: For Democratic Platforms.

Uninhibited Campaign Donations Risks Creating Oligarchy

In new research, Valentino Larcinese and Alberto Parmigiani find that the 1986 Reagan tax cuts led to greater campaign spending from wealthy individuals, who benefited the most from this policy. The authors argue that a very permissive system of political finance, combined with the erosion of tax progressivity, created the conditions for the mutual reinforcement of economic and political disparities. The result was an inequality spiral hardly compatible with democratic ideals.

Did the Meme Stock Revolution Actually Change Anything?

Many financial commentators thought that the surge of retail investors participating in the stock market, the most notable of whom boosted “meme stocks” like GameStop, would democratize corporate governance and improve prosocial firm behavior, including the promotion of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals. In new research, Dhruv Aggarwal, Albert H. Choi, and Yoon-Ho Alex Lee find evidence that the exact opposite took place.

The Kroger-Albertsons Merger Will Not Help Grocery Competition

Kroger and Albertsons say they need to merge to compete with Walmart. Claire Kelloway argues that what they really want is Walmart’s monopsony power, and permitting mergers on these grounds will only harm suppliers, workers, and consumers.