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Two Questions Determine Whether a Pricing Algorithm Becomes Evidence of Price Fixing

Two recent court rulings on casino-hotels using a shared software to fix prices reveal the importance of information exchanges as a super plus factor: an indicator of illegal conspiracy to limit trade. Roger D. Blair and Javier D. Donna discuss how these court cases and other recent lawsuits elucidate the role of the information exchange and the two vectors that determine its strength as a plus factor: data sensitivity and a give-to-get understanding among firms that if they shared their data, competitors would do the same.

Congress Has More Work to Do Before PBM Reform Reaches Consumers      

Jeremy Pilaar and Albert (Haotian) Wang present the weaknesses in current legislative reforms targeting pharmacy benefit managers. They suggest that lawmakers focus on reining in PBM income, limiting fees that PBMs can charge, and empowering state legislative efforts.  

The Foreignness of Africa’s Startup Ecosystem

Startups in Africa rely heavily on an equity market dominated by foreign investors and founders who studied or worked outside the continent. In new research, Emanuele Colonnelli, Marcio Cruz, Mariana Pereira-Lopez, Tommaso Porzio and Chun Zhao show that this dynamic exists because local equity is expensive, the pool of local entrepreneurs seeking out funding is small, and local entrepreneurs have limited access to foreign investors.

States Can Facilitate an AI Slowdown Without the Federal Government

The artificial intelligence industry recently called for an antitrust exemption to coordinate self-regulation as the risks their models pose to the internet and society...

Antitrust Enforcers Should Focus on Market Power Not on Vague Welfare Concepts

Alberto Heimler argues that antitrust authorities should focus on whether market power allows one party to exploit relationship-specific sunk investments made by another and how that undermines potential innovation, investments, and competition. 

Economics Is Opening Up at the Edges, but Not at the Top

In new research, Markus Eberhardt, Giovanni Facchini, and Valeria Rueda find that a growing share of PhD graduates from top U.S. economics programs are leaving academia, looking beyond North America, and moving into the private sector, especially towards the tech industry.

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