The Archives

The collection of all scholarly commentary on law, economics, and more

Showing results for:  “digital markets act”

Smoothing Demand Kinks

One criticism of the unilateral effects analysis in the 2010 Merger Guidelines is that demand curves are kinked at the current price.  A small increase in price will dramatically reduce the quantity demanded.  One rationale for the kink is that people over-react to small price changes and dramatically reduce demand.  As a result of this ... Smoothing Demand Kinks

Measure 37 Upheld

You may or may not know that Oregon’s Measure 37 — our anti-takings measure — was ruled unconstitutional last year by a state trial court. See this post by Todd Zywicki. But today the Oregon Supreme Court reversed, and handed the effort to quash Measure 37 a resounding defeat. The court’s holding, on each of ... Measure 37 Upheld

What Happens When Attempted Collusion Fails

Harvard College decided this year not to offer a service option many of its customers want — early admission. When Harvard’s new policy was announced, the dean of admissions took care to emphasize, “We’re looking for all the company we can get.” Soon thereafter, Harvard got some company; Princeton adopted a similar policy, and a ... What Happens When Attempted Collusion Fails

Easterbrook on False Positives

I recently came across a keynote speech by Frank Easterbrook (published at 52 Emory L.J. 1297 (2003)) where he discusses Type I errors in antitrust cases.  Easterbrook, of course, produced the fundamental insight for antitrust enforcement that competition itself constrained the costs associated with false negatives while false positives were likely to ripple throughout the ... Easterbrook on False Positives

Is the FTC Moving to the National Gallery of Art, Part II

Congressman Mica’s mission to oust the Federal Trade Commission from its current digs continues.  Mica is the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and has made the move top priority (Washington Post): “You won’t believe me, but this is my only priority as chairman,” he says — a fact that has the commissioners ... Is the FTC Moving to the National Gallery of Art, Part II

The Truth About Reverse Mergers

For those interested in small company finance, I’ve recently posted on SSRN a draft of the short piece I’ve written for the Entrepreneurial Business Law Journal symposium issue. The piece is entitled “The Truth About Reverse Mergers” and can be downloaded here. Here’s the abstract: The Article examines the reverse merger method of going public. ... The Truth About Reverse Mergers

The death of campaign finance regulation

In Arizona Free Enterprise Club, et al., v. Bennett, et al. and McComish, et al., v. Bennett, et al.  the Court is deciding what seems to be a couple of relatively narrow issues: (1) Whether the First Amendment forbids states from providing additional government subsidies to publicly financed candidates that are triggered by independent expenditure ... The death of campaign finance regulation

Scalping Next

So Alinea’s Grant Achatz has a new restaurant, Next, which is the talk of Chicago and the nation.  You can buy transferable dining tickets which the NYT reports are being traded online up to $3,000.  So now we see that even chefs can be like Hannah Montana. Alinea caps sales at two tables/customer given a ... Scalping Next

The death of the billable hour?

Jay Shepherd writing on ATL thinks the billable hour is “a dying business model. . . because it focuses on selling the wrong thing. * * * [N]o client in the history of the planet has ever wanted to buy time. * * * It’s what you can do for them during that time.” Shepherd ... The death of the billable hour?

The Economics of $4300

Tyler Cowen invokes Klein and Leffler (1981) to explain the the apparently high price of paid by Client #9 for sex, arguing that high price in combination with the repeat purchase mechanism were part of a self-enforcement mechanism designed to assure performance (in this case, presumably, sex and secrecy). That the $4,300 represents a substantial ... The Economics of $4300

Shocked: Gasoline Prices Vary Edition

From the Attorney General’s Memorandum to the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force (HT: Michael Giberson, who is a must read on all issues oil and energy related: Based upon our work and research to date, it is evident that there are regional differences in gasoline prices, as well as differences in the statutory and other ... Shocked: Gasoline Prices Vary Edition

Comment on "Barnett on Sirius-XM"

I can’t seem to get my comment on Geoff’s XM-Sirius post below to go through, so I’ll just post it: I would still disagree with the DOJ when they say “there is not likely to be significant competition…through the car manufacturer channel for many years.”  As mentioned, the exclusive contract is competition.  Even though they ... Comment on "Barnett on Sirius-XM"