Showing results for: “price gouging”
How to Survive A Motion to Dismiss After Twombly
David Fischer at Antitrust Review points to a decision out of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania where plaintiffs’ allegations of conspiracy in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act survived a motion to dismiss. Recall that Twombly rejected the “any set of facts” or “conceivability” standard set forth in Conley v. Gibson in favor ... How to Survive A Motion to Dismiss After Twombly
Symposium on Empirical Antitrust in the Antitrust Law Journal
The application of empirical economic methods in antitrust can and should play an important, even central, role in the development of sound competition policy. For example, former FTC Chairman Tim Muris explicitly made the case that empirical examination of the economic foundations of antitrust could improve antitrust policy making and undertook efforts to make such ... Symposium on Empirical Antitrust in the Antitrust Law Journal
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
The EC versus Intel: The SO is issued
To no one’s great surprise (other than that it took so long), the European Commission issued a Statement of Objections against Intel today. More information as it becomes available. For those looking for a little insight into the case, you might be intrested in The FTC’s 1998 Complaint against Intel and the resulting Consent Decree (the entire case ... The EC versus Intel: The SO is issued
Junk Social Science in the Medical Bankruptcy Debate
My GMU colleague Todd Zywicki and Gail Heriot (USD) have an op-ed in the Washington Times exposing Harvard Professors David Himmelstein and Elizabeth Warren’s study on medical debt and bankruptcy, presented to Congress earlier this week, as “one of the most misleading pieces of research ever placed before Congress — no small dishonor.” The punchline ... Junk Social Science in the Medical Bankruptcy Debate
A New Blog: Management R&D
Luke Froeb and Brian McCann, authors of a leading managerial economics text, have launched a new blog: Management R&D. The subject matter of the posts so far look like they should be interesting to TOTM readers: the FTC credit-score based pricing report, M&A, price discrimination, and RPM.
Chicago, Post-Chicago, Post-Post-Chicago: On Using Shorthand Labels Responsibly
Over the past few weeks I’ve read at least two dozen papers, mostly by legal scholars (but some by economists) employing or critiquing economic analysis of law, that use the term “Chicago School,” in a critical and misleading way. Conventionally, use of this nomenclature comes along with a claim that “Chicago School” economics is code for a ... Chicago, Post-Chicago, Post-Post-Chicago: On Using Shorthand Labels Responsibly
The FTC Releases its Credit-Based Insurance Scores Report
Available here. Here are a few of the key findings of the study which examined the use of credit-based scores to determine automobile insurance rates: Scores effectively predict the number of claims consumers file and the total cost of those claims. Their use is likely to make the price of insurance better match the risk ... The FTC Releases its Credit-Based Insurance Scores Report
More Thoughts on Free Market Orthodoxy in Antitrust
In my last post I claimed that there is a no “free market economics orthodoxy” amongst antitrust economists or those working in the field of law and economics. In response to the post, an anonymous TOTM reader emails the following related, and probably more interesting, questions: “is there a free market orthodoxy amongst (1) legal ... More Thoughts on Free Market Orthodoxy in Antitrust
How Rough Do Dissenters From "Free Market Economics" Have It Anyway?
There are some good posts from several fine economists in the blogosphere responding to this NY Times article suggesting that the majority of economists are “free market” ideologues and those who dissent from laissez-faire dogma are sanctioned by their peers. All are excellent posts worth reading in their entirety and take on various problems with ... How Rough Do Dissenters From "Free Market Economics" Have It Anyway?
Newsflash! AAI supports merger review!
In shocking news, the American Antitrust Institute has come out with a white paper suggesting that the FTC’s challenge of the Whole Foods/Wild Oats merger is warranted (HT: Hanno): The FTC cites to numerous factors and questions that make a highly compelling case for looking closely at whether a Whole Foods/Wild Oats combination will tend substantially to ... Newsflash! AAI supports merger review!
Evaluating Leegin
Thom’s excellent post covers most of the important points in Leegin and offers a fairly comprehensive critique of what I deemed to be a surprisingly weak dissent from Justice Breyer. As we’ve noted over and over here at TOTM, the death of Dr. Miles is clearly the right outcome judged based upon the underlying antitrust ... Evaluating Leegin
