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.

Matt Lucky reviews Noam Schieber’s Mutiny: The Rise and Revolt of the College-Educated Working Class, now out at Macmillan.

Artificial intelligence will change the market for economic consultants, likely reducing overall demand and shifting workers to current clients’ in-house units. However, both consulting firms and clients are still studying how to deploy AI, and there may yet be new opportunities for consultants as AI changes the broader economy, write Mona Birjandi and Mery Zadeh.

Ratib Ali analyzes whether a merger between United and American Airlines would pass merger review according to the 2023 Merger Guidelines and finds that under multiple market definitions, it would substantially lessen competition.

Hannah Pittock argues that current analysis of reverse acquihires misses the core conceptual debate over antitrust’s antiquated treatment of hiring as benign vertical agreements between the laborers (the supplier) and employers (the buyer), in which labor is treated as one input among many.

In new research, Jongkwan Lee, Giovanni Peri, and Hee-Seung Yang assess the effects of a sudden reduction in immigrant workers in South Korea. They find that migrant workers were not easily replaceable by natives, resulting in operational disruptions and firm closures.