Four experts predict some of the trends that will define European competition in 2026.

COMMENTARY

The Trends That Defined US Antitrust in 2025

Four experts reflect on some of the trends that defined United States antitrust and competition in 2025.

RESEARCH

How Rising Corporate Market Power Undermines Democracy   

In new research, Seda Basihos investigates the relationship between a decline in market competition and global democratic backsliding. She finds that market concentration leads to increasing political power for giant firms—a trend that ultimately erodes democracy levels.
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A New Capitalisn’t Episode

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LATEST

Antitrust’s Hydraulic Effects on Startups

In recent research, Brian Broughman, Matthew Wansley, and Samuel Weinstein examine how startups are changing their traditional exit strategies in response to more stringent antitrust enforcement. Many startups are adopting alternative strategies to stay private longer, ultimately raising new questions for competition policy. 

How Regulation Can Target the Negative Effects of Vertical Foreclosure

In a new NBER working paper, Charles Hodgson and Shilong Sun show that vertical integration is usually good for consumers, except when firms have both the ability and the incentive to foreclose rivals.  They use the heavily integrated Chinese Film Industry to show that targeting enforcement to the markets where harm is predictable makes it possible to effectively regulate harmful cases and protect consumers.

ProMarket in 2025

ProMarket’s writers review the topics that defined our coverage in 2025.

ProMarket’s Favorite Political Economy From 2025

Not sure how to cash in those bookstore gift cards? Here are ten suggestions from the Stigler Center staff. 1. Stuck: How the Privileged and...

The Ten Most Popular ProMarket Articles From 2025

ProMarket published 257 articles in 2024. Revisit some of our most popular pieces.

READING LISTS

Americans spend significantly more on health care than any other country. Why? Answers to this question range from hospital monopolies to perverse incentives to opaque pricing to medical licensing to pharmaceutical firms abusing IP practices to “creeping consolidation.” Why is the US health care system so broken? And what can antirust do about it? Catch-up on our coverage of antitrust and the US health care system.

Novo Nordisk’s Offer To Acquire Metsera Constitutes Attempted Monopolization

Hannah Pittock uses weight-loss company Novo Nordisk’s offer to acquire Metsera to create a three-prong framework by which the antitrust agencies can identify when an invitation to exclude a rival from a market constitutes illegal exclusionary conduct under Section 2 of the Sherman Act.

Novo Nordisk’s Killer Non-Acquisition Merger Contract Proposal Is a Case of “Heads I Win, Tails You Lose”

Steve Salop explores the anticompetitive innovation behind weight-loss giant Novo Nordisk’s offer to acquire Metsera. Novo’s proposed contract presents a new tactic by which firms with market power can preclude rival mergers that will lead to procompetitive entry.

Will Trump’s Drug-Pricing Order Reduce Prices for Americans?

President Donald Trump has, across two administrations, sought to lower drug prices for Americans, most recently with executive order “Delivering Most-Favored-Nation Prescription Drug Pricing to American Patients.” Margherita Colangelo explains why his order is unlikely to accomplish its goal.

Is Competition Law Making Us Sick?

In new research, Benjamin Wood, Sven Gallasch, Nicholas Shaxson, Katherine Sievert, and Gary Sacks write that competition underenforcement and a narrow regulatory focus on prices and output has allowed industries that produce harmful consumer products, such as tobacco or ultra-processed foods, to increase demand and, consequentially, harm to society. They argue that competition law must evolve to consider health impacts.

George J. Stigler, one of the most influential economists of the 20th century, won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 1982 “for his seminal studies of industrial structures, functioning of markets, and causes and effects of public regulation.” His research upended the idea that government regulation was effective at correcting private-market failures. Stigler introduced the idea of regulatory capture, in which regulators could be dominated by special interests. These regulators would work for the benefit of large, monied organizations rather than the public good. Catch up on ProMarket's coverage of his legacy.

Top Five Capitalisn’t Episodes From 2025

A look back at the five most-listened-to Capitalisn’t episodes from 2025.

Five Popular Stigler Center (Non-conference) Events From 2025

A look back at some of the popular webinars, minicourses, and conversations the Stigler Center hosted in 2025. Making Markets Work for People: Digital Platform...

Warner Bros as Antitrust’s Streaming Stress Test

Warner Bros. (“Warner”), a prized and consequential media company, is once again on the auction block, and both Netflix and Paramount Skydance are competing to buy it. Barak Orbach observes that bidders’ appetites for prized media enterprises often foster undue optimism about the feasibility of successfully integrating them. He argues that antitrust scrutiny of any acquisition of Warner would likely underscore the need to modernize certain antitrust doctrines and analytical frameworks.

Preventing Algorithmic Collusion by Adding Noise to Market Data

In new research, Niuniu Zhang discusses how regulators can add “noise” to market data to preclude tacit collusion through algorithmic pricing software without hampering legitimate market practices.

How To Design CBDCs for an Open World Economy

Countries representing 98% of global GDP are exploring central bank digital currencies. They must devise digital infrastructure to maximize competition, writes Jeff Alvares.

Do Unequal Places Cost More To Live in?

In recent research, Yumin Hu, Luca Macedoni, and Mingzhi Xu explore how high income inequality can raise the costs of living. They compare grocery products around the U.S., finding that large retailers will increase the prices for their goods in places where income inequality is also high.

Open Source Is Having a Moment in AI Regulation. Here Is What the Data Says

Jérémie Haese and Christian Peukert present new empirical findings on core open source technologies for the web and AI. Open source holds promise for making AI systems more transparent and secure, but it risks masking continued centralized control under the guise of openness.

COLUMNS

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