A big year for business and economics in the courts, even if we’re not talking about Janus
This has been a big year for business in the courts. A U.S. district court approved the AT&T-Time Warner merger, the Supreme Court upheld Amex’s agreements with merchants, and a circuit court pushed back on the Federal Trade Commission’s vague and heavy handed policing of companies’ consumer data safeguards. These three decisions mark a new ... A big year for business and economics in the courts, even if we’re not talking about Janus
Weekend reads: Big is bad edition
Big is bad, part 1: Kafka, Coase, and Brandeis walk into a bar … There’s a quip in a well-known textbook that Nobel laureate Ronald Coase said he’d grown weary of antitrust because when prices went up, the judges said it was monopoly; when the prices went down, they said it was predatory pricing; and ... Weekend reads: Big is bad edition
AT&T-Time Warner merger approved
AT&T’s merger with Time Warner has lead to one of the most important, but least interesting, antitrust trials in recent history. The merger itself is somewhat unimportant to consumers. It’s about a close to a “pure” vertical merger as we can get in today’s world and would not lead to a measurable increase in prices ... AT&T-Time Warner merger approved
Weekend Reads
Innovation dies in darkness. Well, actually, it thrives in the light, according to this new research: We find that after a patent library opens, local patenting increases by 17% relative to control regions that have Federal Depository Libraries. … [T]]he library boost ceases to be present after the introduction of the Internet. We find that ... Weekend Reads
Weekend reads
Good government dies in the darkness. This article is getting a lot of attention on Wonk Twitter and what’s left of the blogosphere. From the abstract: We examine the effect of local newspaper closures on public finance for local governments. Following a newspaper closure, we find municipal borrowing costs increase by 5 to 11 basis ... Weekend reads
Do biased stats provide bogus economics? A primer on publication bias and power
If you do research involving statistical analysis, you’ve heard of John Ioannidis. If you haven’t heard of him, you will. He’s gone after the fields of medicine, psychology, and economics. He may be coming for your field next. Ioannidis is after bias in research. He is perhaps best known for a 2005 paper “Why Most ... Do biased stats provide bogus economics? A primer on publication bias and power
Causing harm in the name of safety: Political opposition to non-combustible tobacco products
In January a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel, the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC), voted 8-1 that the weight of scientific evidence shows that switching from cigarettes to an innovative, non-combustible tobacco product such as Philip Morris International’s (PMI’s) IQOS system significantly reduces a user’s exposure to harmful or potentially harmful chemicals. This ... Causing harm in the name of safety: Political opposition to non-combustible tobacco products
IMG-Learfield: An antitrust reality check on two-sided market mergers
Yesterday Learfield and IMG College inked their recently announced merger. Since the negotiations were made public several weeks ago, the deal has garnered some wild speculation and potentially negative attention. Now that the merger has been announced, it’s bound to attract even more attention and conjecture. On the field of competition, however, the market realities ... IMG-Learfield: An antitrust reality check on two-sided market mergers
An Apollo 13 approach to Obamacare
“Houston, we have a problem.” It’s the most famous line from Apollo 13 and perhaps how most Republicans are feeling about their plans to repeal and replace Obamacare. As repeal and replace has given way to tinker and punt, Congress should take a lesson from one of my favorite scenes from Apollo 13. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2YZnTL596Q “We ... An Apollo 13 approach to Obamacare
Unsurprising evidence that hiking the minimum wage hurts low wage workers
On July 1, the minimum wage will spike in several cities and states across the country. Portland, Oregon’s minimum wage will rise by $1.50 to $11.25 an hour. Los Angeles will also hike its minimum wage by $1.50 to $12 an hour. Recent research shows that these hikes will make low wage workers poorer. A ... Unsurprising evidence that hiking the minimum wage hurts low wage workers
