Stigler Center Talks

Should ESG-Driven Investors and Stakeholders Divest or Engage? A Stigler Center/Rustandy Center Panel Explores

Should investors and stakeholders who wish to influence companies to promote desirable social and environmental outcomes focus on actions like divestment and...

Is China’s Political Economy Facing a New Era? A Stigler Center Webinar Explores

A Stigler Center panel, part of our new series on China’s present-day and future prospects, explores the legacy of Xi Jinping, China’s...

A Former Central Banker Tells Other Central Bankers: “Stay Away From Davos”

In an interview with ProMarket, former Bank of England deputy governor Sir Paul Tucker explains why the “unelected power” of central bankers threatens our...

Data Workers of the World, Unite!

With solutions to the threats of digital monopolies currently looking unlikely to come from the state, law and economics scholars Eric Posner and Glen...

Tyler Cowen: Complacent Americans Can’t Imagine a Future Unlike the Present

In conversation with Stigler Center director Luigi Zingales, Tyler Cowen—one of the brains behind the world’s most popular economics blog, Marginal Revolution—argues that a...

Watch: “Stigler in the 21st Century”

Our 40th anniversary event brought together academics and intellectuals to discuss George Stigler’s legacy. Watch the second day's sessions.      The George J. Stigler Center for the Study of...

Stigler Center Event: Is Direct Democracy a Solution to Populism?

Can direct democracy be used to fix the crisis of representative democracy? Join us for a series of three stand-alone, interrelated lunch seminars by...

Stigler Center Launches Case Study Series

On Thursday, the Stigler Center will launch the first in a series of business case studies that focus on the many ways special interest...

Theory of the Firm Interview Series: John Van Reenen

The second installment in ProMarket’s new interview series: Should the economic theory of the firm be modified? If so, how? In this installment, we...

Interview Series: How Incomplete is the Theory of the Firm? Q&A with Daniel Carpenter

Should the economic theory of the firm be modified? If so, how? In March, the Stigler Center at the University of Chicago Booth School...

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.