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Showing results for:  “Google shopping manne”

Don't kill interchange fees

Speaking of Josh’s co-author, David Evans,  David just testified the other day before the House Financial Services Committee on a bill, the Welch Bill, HR 2382, that would regulate the fees banks charge to each other to process credit card payments.  The Welch Bill is actually only one of three pending bills that would regulate ... Don't kill interchange fees

A bright spot in the bleak financial industry regulatory firmament

Between the various power grabs and dubious regulatory proposals (each more dubious than the last!) from the likes of Geithner, Bernanke, Frank (.pdf), Dodd, etc., etc. you’d be excused for thinking the financial news from Washington (remember when financial news used to come from New York?) was all bad and growing only worse. But there ... A bright spot in the bleak financial industry regulatory firmament

Tragedies of the Gridlock Economy at George Mason University Information Economy Project

My colleague Tom Hazlett and his Information Economy Project at GMU is putting on a wonderful conference this week.  The public event is a debate between Michael Heller and Richard Epstein on the Gridlock Economy.  Following that event is an academic conference including: Harold Demsetz, Michael Meurer, F. Scott Kieff, Adam Mossoff, Kevin Werbach, Thomas ... Tragedies of the Gridlock Economy at George Mason University Information Economy Project

President Obama, the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, and Consumer Choice

My colleague Todd Zywicki and I have a piece out in Lombard Street today on the proposed new Consumer Financial Protection Agency.   The issue has a number of contributions from proponents and critics of the new agency.   The piece is well timed, with President Obama making the case for the CFPA in his Wall Street ... President Obama, the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, and Consumer Choice

Antitrust, Multi-Dimensional Competition, and Innovation: Do We Have an Antitrust-Relevant Theory of Competition Now?

My essay on economics, innovation, and antitrust, forthcoming in Manne & Wright’s forthcoming volume on Regulating Innovation: Competition Policy and Patent Law Under Certainty (introductory chapter available here), is now available on SSRN.  The essay is a revisiting of a fundamental challenge Harold Demsetz offered to antitrust decades ago that I believe has gone, from ... Antitrust, Multi-Dimensional Competition, and Innovation: Do We Have an Antitrust-Relevant Theory of Competition Now?

Pioneers of Law and Economics — Available Now

Pioneers of Law and Economics, a volume I edited alongside my colleague Lloyd Cohen, is now available at the Elgar Website.   I’m very happy with how the book came out in large part because of the fantastic group of contributors who agreed to take on chapters, including:  Harold Demsetz, Nuno Garoupa and Fernando Gomez-Pomar, Mark ... Pioneers of Law and Economics — Available Now

International Signals: The Political Dimension of International Competition Law Harmonization

Seth Weinberger and I have a new article up at SSRN injecting some IR theory into the debate over international antitrust law.   Abstract: The article, written jointly by a law professor and political science professor, endeavors to explain why the United States is particularly resistant to various efforts at international harmonization of antitrust law. While ... International Signals: The Political Dimension of International Competition Law Harmonization

Regulating Innovation: Competition Policy and Patent Law Under Uncertainty

Later this year Josh and I have an edited volume with the above title coming out with Cambridge University Press.  The list of contributors is phenomenal, including: Bob Cooter Vincenzo Denicolo Richard Epstein Luigi Franzoni Damien Geradin Keith Hylton Marco Iansiti Scott Kieff Bruce Kobayashi Haizhen Lee Stan Leibowitz Mark Lemley Doug Lichtman Steve Margolis ... Regulating Innovation: Competition Policy and Patent Law Under Uncertainty

Armen Alchian, Harold Demsetz and Ben Klein Should Win the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics

With the start of the school year comes another fall tradition here at TOTM: Nobel speculation.  More specifically, every fall I yell from the rooftops that some combination of Armen Alchian, Harold Demsetz and Ben Klein should win the award.  In 2006, I argued that the UCLA trio outperformed the more conventionally wise trio of ... Armen Alchian, Harold Demsetz and Ben Klein Should Win the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics

Another Way DOJ Might Pursue "Vigorous Antitrust Enforcement in This Challenging Era"

DOJ’s top antitrust enforcer Christine Varney had hardly gotten settled in her office before she repudiated the existing DOJ guidelines on policing single-firm conduct. In the spirit of Rahm Emanuel’s famous “never let a serious crisis go to waste” directive, Ms. Varney invoked the current economic crisis as grounds for her decision to throw out ... Another Way DOJ Might Pursue "Vigorous Antitrust Enforcement in This Challenging Era"

The optimal level of risk is not zero

I have said it before and I’ll say it again: All of this hand wringing over executive compensation seems to exist in a parallel world where corporate executives have no risk aversion, where there is no real competition for managerial talent, and where firms can only take on too much–never too little–risk.  And this in ... The optimal level of risk is not zero

EU Intel Fines Attract Rebuke

I’ve criticized the European Commission’s antitrust attack against Intel here and the resulting $1.44 billion fine.  Now the EU is drawing fire for allegedly burying testimony, or at least failing to record it in a satisfactory manner, from Dell that it chose Intel’s chips not because of the coercive force of any of Intel’s rebates ... EU Intel Fines Attract Rebuke