Showing results for: “premium natural and organic”
The EU tightens the noose around Google
Here we go again. The European Commission is after Google more formally than a few months ago (but not yet having issued a Statement of Objections). For background on the single-firm antitrust issues surrounding Google I modestly recommend my paper with Josh, Google and the Limits of Antitrust: The Case Against the Antitrust Case Against ... The EU tightens the noose around Google
My New Empirical Study on Defining and Measuring Search Bias
Tomorrow is the deadline for Eric Schmidt to send his replies to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s follow up questions from his appearance at a hearing on Google antitrust issues last month. At the hearing, not surprisingly, search neutrality was a hot topic, with representatives from the likes of Yelp and Nextag, as well as Expedia’s ... My New Empirical Study on Defining and Measuring Search Bias
Extending & Rebutting Edelman & Lockwood on Search Bias
In my last post, I discussed Edelman & Lockwood’s (E&L’s) attempt to catch search engines in the act of biasing their results—as well as their failure to actually do so. In this post, I present my own results from replicating their study. Unlike E&L, I find that Bing is consistently more biased than Google, for ... Extending & Rebutting Edelman & Lockwood on Search Bias
The folly of the FTC’s Section Five case against Google
In the past weeks, the chatter surrounding a possible FTC antitrust case against Google has risen in volume, thanks largely to the FTC’s hiring of litigator Beth Wilkinson. The question remains, however, what this aggressive move portends and, more importantly, why the FTC is taking it. It is worth noting at the outset that, as ... The folly of the FTC’s Section Five case against Google
The European Approach to Standard Essential Patents (SEPs): A Sound Critique by Scalia Law’s Global Antitrust Institute (GAI)
The Scalia Law School’s Global Antitrust Institute (GAI) has once again penned a trenchant law and economics-based critique of a foreign jurisdiction’s competition policy pronouncement. On April 28, the GAI posted a comment (GAI Comment) in response to a “Communication from the [European] Commission (EC) on Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) for a European Digitalised Economy” ... The European Approach to Standard Essential Patents (SEPs): A Sound Critique by Scalia Law’s Global Antitrust Institute (GAI)
Thaler’s Unsound Argument About the Public Insurance Option
University of Chicago economist (and behavioralist doyen) Richard Thaler thinks “the question of whether a ‘public option’ should be part of the health care solution” is just “one big distraction.” In Sunday’s New York Times, Thaler argues that the debate over the public option is a “red herring” if, as President Obama insists, the public ... Thaler’s Unsound Argument About the Public Insurance Option
Shelf Space Payments and Retail Bargaining Power
At his new blog Management R&D, Luke Froeb writes about the strategy of downstream firms reducing capacity in order to increase competition among suppliers: To gain bargaining power, some firms reduce capacity to increase competition among their suppliers. For example, health insurers restrict the number of drugs on their formularies or the number of hospitals ... Shelf Space Payments and Retail Bargaining Power
"Equilibrium Decadence" in Law and Economics?
Here is Justin Wolfers discussing what Paul Krugman has called “equilibrium decadence” in the context of the current macro debate: The claim is that academic macroeconomists have become mired in a particularly fruitless equilibrium, in which each is engaged in the search for ever-greater levels of formal elegance, at the expense of empirical relevance. There’s ... "Equilibrium Decadence" in Law and Economics?
Wanna Keep This Economic Mess to a Minimum? Honor Contracts.
New York Times business columnist Joe Nocera insists that current economic conditions call for courts to ignore carefully negotiated contracts between sophisticated business entities. Arguing that Dow Chemical Company should be free to walk away from its agreement to buy specialty chemical manufacturer Rohm & Haas, Mr. Nocera contends that “maybe, just maybe, deals that ... Wanna Keep This Economic Mess to a Minimum? Honor Contracts.
Law and Economics 2.0
Readers of TOTM know that the future of law and economics is a frequent topic of discussion here, and a topic in which I am both personally invested and spend a good deal of time thinking about (see, e.g. my blog series on the future of law and economics here). Legal Pad (at CNN/Fortune Magazine) ... Law and Economics 2.0
Antitrust under President Obama: "I will direct my administration to reinvigorate antitrust enforcement"
Danny Sokol makes some predictions about Post-Obama antitrust, and about my disappointment in what he perceives to be the likely direction of antitrust policy in the Obama administration: 1. increased challenges of mergers and monopolization cases, especially at DOJ 2. more consumer protection work at the FTC with a push to more expansive consumer rights ... Antitrust under President Obama: "I will direct my administration to reinvigorate antitrust enforcement"
Microsoft Withdraws Its Bid For Yahoo!
This just in: Microsoft withdrew its most recent bid for Yahoo and announced it will not be making a hostile move for Yahoo. This comes on the heels of the announcement a mere day ago that Yahoo and Microsoft were sitting down to try to hammer out a friendly deal. Fickle, that Microsoft is! Allow ... Microsoft Withdraws Its Bid For Yahoo!
