Germany

New Research Shows The Breakup of IG Farben Increased Innovation

IG Farben used to be the world’s largest chemical company and a major innovator—until it was broken up in one of the...

Can Companies Use Climate Change as an Excuse to Obtain More Market Power? A ProMarket Interview

In an interview with ProMarket, Jürgen Kühling, the chair of Germany’s Monopolies Commission, discusses the relationship between climate change and antitrust, what...

Chart of the Week: Two-thirds of Germans Support Russian Energy Embargo

A new survey of German citizens reveals the steps they'd support to help Ukrainians and punish Russia.

Lessons from the Past? How Ordoliberal Competition Theory Can Address Market Power in the Digital Age

Some of the lessons uncovered by ordoliberal thinkers during the interwar period in Germany could help us tackle the current challenges posed...

Should Google Still be Allowed to Crown the Kings in Digital Markets?

Google search is continuously evolving into a full service provider, directly selecting and presenting the information that we are looking for. At...

“Power Is Evil in Itself”: The Ordoliberal Quest for a Privilege-Free Order

The lesson from the quest of German ordoliberals for a privilege-free order from the 1930s to the 1950s is that once in...

Fahmi Quadir: “Short Sellers are Always an Easy Boogeyman”

In an interview with ProMarket, short-seller Fahmi Quadir, who has shorted companies like Wirecard and Valeant, discussed the public perception of short-sellers...

Taming Big Tech: What Can We Expect From Germany’s New Antitrust Tool?

Targeted at Big Tech, Germany’s new antitrust tool for dealing with large digital platforms rebalances the power between the competition watchdog and...

Wirecard Scandal: When All Lines of Defense Against Corporate Fraud Fail

Scandals such as Wirecard can destroy investor trust in capital markets working fairly and with integrity. A new policy brief commissioned by...

Seven Reasons Why the Wirecard Fraud Matters

We now know that Wirecard was a massive fraud. The company—treated like a rock star by regulators and key players in finance—fabricated...

LATEST NEWS

Revising the Merger Guidelines To Return Antitrust to a Sound Economic and Legal Foundation

The draft Merger Guidelines largely replace the consumer welfare standard of the Chicago School with the lessening of competition principle found in the 1914 Clayton Act. This shift would enable the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice Antitrust Division to utilize the full extent of modern economics to respond to rising concentration and its harmful effects, writes John Kwoka.

How Anthony Downs’s Analysis Explains Rational Voters’ Preferences for Populism

In new research, Cyril Hédoin and Alexandre Chirat use the rational-choice theory of economist Anthony Downs to explain how populism rationally arises to challenge established institutions of liberal democracy.

The Impact of Large Institutional Investors on Innovation Is Not as Positive as One Might Expect

In a new paper, Bing Guo, Dennis C. Hutschenreiter, David Pérez-Castrillo, and Anna Toldrà-Simats study how large institutional investors impact firm innovation. The authors find that large institutional investors encourage internal research and development but discourage firm acquisitions that would add patents and knowledge to their firms’ portfolios, hampering overall innovation.

The FTC Needs To Focus Arguments on Technological Transitions After High-Profile Losses

Joshua Gray and Cristian Santesteban argue that the Federal Trade Commission's focus in Meta-Within and Microsoft-Activision on narrow markets like VR fitness apps and consoles missed the boat on the real competition issue: the threat to future competition in nascent markets like VR platforms and cloud gaming.

We Need Better Research on the Relationship Between Market Power and Productivity in the Hospital Industry

Antitrust debates have largely ignored questions about the relationship between market power and productivity, and scholars have provided little guidance on the issue due to data limitations. However, data is plentiful on the hospital industry for both market power and operating costs and productivity, and researchers need to take advantage, writes David Ennis.