The Archives

Everything written by Joshua D. Wright on law, economics, and more

Antitrust Law and Economics

Antitrust Law and Economics, a volume edited by Keith Hylton, is now available from Edward Elgar Publishing.  Here is the description: This comprehensive book provides an extensive overview of the major topics of antitrust law from an economic perspective. Its in-depth treatment and analysis of both the law and economics of antitrust is presented via ... Antitrust Law and Economics

We’re Back!

Our apologies again for the interrupted service.  In light of some spam attacks and other problems, we’ve been in a slow and painful process of switching to a more stable and secure platform on WordPress.  While we were at it, we’ve updated our look a little bit as well, with more possibly to come in ... We’re Back!

Congratulations to ICLE Research Fellow Judd Stone

Congratulations to International Center for Law and Economics Research Fellow — also my former George Mason law student, long-time research assistant, and now co-author — and Northwestern University School of Law graduate, Judd Stone.  Judd somehow managed to finish his 3L year at Northwestern Law with with a “perfect” semester involving 5 A+’s in 5 ... Congratulations to ICLE Research Fellow Judd Stone

Two Submissions to the Horizontal Merger Guidelines Review Project

This week, I submitted two comments to the Horizontal Merger Guidelines Revision Project. The first, submitted with a group of economists focusing on the use of price/cost margins in merger analysis.  The submission lays out the basic relationship between margins and elasticities that flows from the profit-maximization assumption, and then discusses several of the factors ... Two Submissions to the Horizontal Merger Guidelines Review Project

Google's Very Public Efficiencies Defense

Here is Google’s attempt to measure its the economic impact of Google search and adwords, adsense and its Google grants programs.  Some media coverage (including a critique of the calculations) here.  The total?  $54 billion.  The report includes state-by-state breakdowns.  Not exactly a made-for-litigation antitrust expert report, but I’m sure a few copies have been ... Google's Very Public Efficiencies Defense

The Capitalist & The Entrepreneur: Essays on Organizations and Markets

I purchased my copy of Peter Klein’s latest —  The Capitalist & The Entrepreneur: Essays on Organizations and Markets — today.  It is available for purchase here and here.  And if you wont to sneak a peak, you can see the full version here.  The role of the entrepreneur is one of the more under-theorized ... The Capitalist & The Entrepreneur: Essays on Organizations and Markets

Comments on Jonathan Baker's Preserving a Political Bargain

I’ve recently finished reading Jonathan Baker’s Preserving a Political Bargain: The Political Economy of the Non-Interventionist Challenge to Monopolization Enforcement, forthcoming in the Antitrust Law Journal. Baker’s central thesis in Preserving a Political Bargain builds on earlier work concerning competition policy as an implicit political bargain that was reached during the 1940s between the more ... Comments on Jonathan Baker's Preserving a Political Bargain

Price Discrimination in Education

Tom Smith offers an entertaining and insightful perspective on the economics of higher education: Without passing moral judgment in any way, I will just observe it is astonishing that higher education in this country has managed to get established a system where consumers have to disclose in detail how much money they have before they ... Price Discrimination in Education

Stan Liebowitz Applies the Laugh Test to the O/S File-Sharing Paper

Stan Liebowitz (UT-Dallas) has posted his latest on the file sharing debate, “The Oberholzer-Gee/Strumpf File-Sharing Instrument Fails the Laugh Test.” (HT: Craig Newmark).   Having covered the file-sharing debate on this blog, including Professor Strumpf’s remarkably unprofessional and uncharitable treatment of Professor Liebowitz, I greatly admire Stan’s ability to stay above the fray and stick to ... Stan Liebowitz Applies the Laugh Test to the O/S File-Sharing Paper

Are State Consumer Protection Acts Really Little FTC Acts?

I’ve posted to SSRN my latest on state consumer protection litigation, Are State Consumer Protection Acts Really Little FTC Acts?, co-authored with Henry Butler (Searle Center, Northwestern University School of Law).  It is forthcoming in the Florida Law Review.  The project aims to empirically examine the similarities and differences between state and federal consumer protection ... Are State Consumer Protection Acts Really Little FTC Acts?

Some Links

There is quite a bit of IO on Youtube (HT: comments section from MR) Congrats to GMU’s Murat Mungan for taking home the Whitney Prize The lineup for the Alabama Ag/ Antitrust workshop has been announced The CD-MAP antitrust settlement funds are paying for concerts Investigation against Apple looms after complaint from Adobe —  the ... Some Links

Judge Sullivan and the UPP: Much Ado About Nothing or Articulating the Real Problem with the New HMGs?

Much has been made of Judge Sullivan’s recent decision in City of New York v. Group Health Incorporated and its implications for the UPP test and market definition in merger cases under Section 7 of the Clayton Act.  Given the 2010 Proposed Horizontal Merger Guidelines’ (2010 HMGs) shift toward diversion ratios and margins and away ... Judge Sullivan and the UPP: Much Ado About Nothing or Articulating the Real Problem with the New HMGs?