The Archives

Everything written by Geoffrey A. Manne on law, economics, and more

A Brief Assessment of the Procompetitive Effects of Organizational Restructuring in the Ag-Biotech Industry

Today the International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE) Antitrust and Consumer Protection Research Program released a new white paper by Geoffrey A. Manne and Allen Gibby entitled: “A Brief Assessment of the Procompetitive Effects of Organizational Restructuring in the Ag-Biotech Industry.” Over the past two decades, rapid technological innovation has transformed the industrial organization of ... A Brief Assessment of the Procompetitive Effects of Organizational Restructuring in the Ag-Biotech Industry

Are rules incompatible with the web? Let’s hope not: A response to Tim Wu

According to Cory Doctorow over at Boing Boing, Tim Wu has written an open letter to W3C Chairman Sir Timothy Berners-Lee, expressing concern about a proposal to include Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) as part of the W3C standards. W3C has a helpful description of EME: Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) is currently a draft specification… [for] an ... Are rules incompatible with the web? Let’s hope not: A response to Tim Wu

New ICLE study finds the Durbin Amendment still harms poorer Americans and small businesses

Today, the International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE) released a study updating our 2014 analysis of the economic effects of the Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank Act. The new paper, Unreasonable and Disproportionate: How the Durbin Amendment Harms Poorer Americans and Small Businesses, by ICLE scholars, Todd J. Zywicki, Geoffrey A. Manne, and Julian ... New ICLE study finds the Durbin Amendment still harms poorer Americans and small businesses

Ag-biotech merger symposium wrap-up

On Thursday, March 30, Friday March 31, and Monday April 3, Truth on the Market and the International Center for Law and Economics presented a blog symposium — Agricultural and Biotech Mergers: Implications for Antitrust Law and Economics in Innovative Industries — discussing three proposed agricultural/biotech industry mergers awaiting judgment by antitrust authorities around the globe. These proposed ... Ag-biotech merger symposium wrap-up

How Uber uses innovative management tactics to incentivize its drivers: A critical commentary on Noam Scheiber’s “How Uber Uses Psychological Tricks to Push Its Drivers’ Buttons”

In a recent long-form article in the New York Times, reporter Noam Scheiber set out to detail some of the ways Uber (and similar companies, but mainly Uber) are engaged in “an extraordinary experiment in behavioral science to subtly entice an independent work force to maximize its growth.” That characterization seems innocuous enough, but it is ... How Uber uses innovative management tactics to incentivize its drivers: A critical commentary on Noam Scheiber’s “How Uber Uses Psychological Tricks to Push Its Drivers’ Buttons”

Innovation-driven market structure in the ag-biotech industry

Dynamic versus static competition Ever since David Teece and coauthors began writing about antitrust and innovation in high-tech industries in the 1980s, we’ve understood that traditional, price-based antitrust analysis is not intrinsically well-suited for assessing merger policy in these markets. For high-tech industries, performance, not price, is paramount — which means that innovation is key: ... Innovation-driven market structure in the ag-biotech industry

Understanding ownership and property in the Digital Age

What does it mean to “own” something? A simple question (with a complicated answer, of course) that, astonishingly, goes unasked in a recent article in the Pennsylvania Law Review entitled, What We Buy When We “Buy Now,” by Aaron Perzanowski and Chris Hoofnagle (hereafter “P&H”). But how can we reasonably answer the question they pose ... Understanding ownership and property in the Digital Age

TOTM welcomes guest blogger (and newest ICLE Senior Scholar) Nicolas Petit

TOTM is pleased to welcome guest blogger Nicolas Petit, Professor of Law & Economics at the University of Liege, Belgium. Nicolas has also recently been named a (non-resident) Senior Scholar at ICLE (joining Joshua Wright, Joanna Shepherd, and Julian Morris). Nicolas is also (as of March 2017) a Research Professor at the University of South ... TOTM welcomes guest blogger (and newest ICLE Senior Scholar) Nicolas Petit

Fair use’s fatal conceit

My colleague, Neil Turkewitz, begins his fine post for Fair Use Week (read: crashing Fair Use Week) by noting that Many of the organizations celebrating fair use would have you believe, because it suits their analysis, that copyright protection and the public interest are diametrically opposed. This is merely a rhetorical device, and is a ... Fair use’s fatal conceit

Public Knowledge’s Lonely Echo Chamber of Copyright Advocacy

Yesterday the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee issued the first set of policy proposals following their long-running copyright review process. These proposals were principally aimed at ensuring that the IT demands of the Copyright Office were properly met so that it could perform its assigned functions, and to provide adequate authority ... Public Knowledge’s Lonely Echo Chamber of Copyright Advocacy

When Past Is Not Prologue: The Weakness of the Economic Evidence Against Health Insurance Mergers

I just posted a new ICLE white paper, co-authored with former ICLE Associate Director, Ben Sperry: When Past Is Not Prologue: The Weakness of the Economic Evidence Against Health Insurance Mergers. Yesterday the hearing in the DOJ’s challenge to stop the Aetna-Humana merger got underway, and last week phase 1 of the Cigna-Anthem merger trial ... When Past Is Not Prologue: The Weakness of the Economic Evidence Against Health Insurance Mergers

Truth on the Market welcomes our newest blogger, Neil Turkewitz

Truth on the Market is delighted to welcome our newest blogger, Neil Turkewitz. Neil is the newly minted Senior Policy Counsel at the International Center for Law & Economics (so we welcome him to ICLE, as well!). Prior to joining ICLE, Neil spent 30 years at the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), most recently ... Truth on the Market welcomes our newest blogger, Neil Turkewitz