Web Seminar: Antitrust Economics 101
I’ll be teaching an interactive web seminar on basic microeconomic concepts that form the basis of antitrust analysis through Competition Policy International’s Learning Center on three consecutive Wednesdays: May 13, 20, and 27th. CLE credit is available for practicing lawyers. Though I think the material will be useful for antitrust lawyers, law students interested in ... Web Seminar: Antitrust Economics 101
Mossoff on the Rise and Fall of the Sewing Machine Patent Thicket
My colleague Adam Mossoff is blogging over at the Volokh Conspiracy on his fascinating paper, A Stitch in Time: The Rise and Fall of the Sewing Machine Patent Thicket. Here’s an excerpt from the first post: The debate centers on whether patent thicket theory accurately explains or predicts such problems in practice, and the empirical ... Mossoff on the Rise and Fall of the Sewing Machine Patent Thicket
Ribstein on Business, Film and Law
Wrapping up what looks like a very interesting conference at the University of Illinois on the interaction between business, film, and law, Larry Ribstein shares some thoughts in an excellent post. Readers of Ideoblog will be familiar with Professor Ribstein’s take on how artists’ negative views of capitalists find their way into film. In summing ... Ribstein on Business, Film and Law
Some Reading
Solow reviews Posner on the financial crisis Dave Hoffman has an excellent post summarizing the consumer bankruptcy debate in empirical legal scholarship in a series of recent papers between Rafael Pardo and a group including Bob Lawless, Angela K. Littwin, Katherine M. Porter, John Pottow, Deborah Thorne, and Elizabeth Warren Why is college tuition rising? ... Some Reading
"We're Kinda Worried About the Monopoly Thing"
That’s from Firefox chief software architect Mike Connor in an interview with PCPro. Here’s an excerpt suggesting that Mozilla fears that its recent success might lead to antitrust liability in the United States or elsewhere: Firefox has only just tipped past the 20% mark in worldwide browser market share, and is still a long way ... "We're Kinda Worried About the Monopoly Thing"
Weekend Reading
Mike Sykuta on GM and Transaction Cost Economics (O&M) Peter Klein on Antitrust and the Theory of the Firm (again, O&M) John Pfaff continues his series on evidence-based empirical work (at Prawfs) Who Games SSRN Download Counts? Guido Imbens (from whom I took econometrics at UCLA) defends randomized experiments in development economics against the critics ... Weekend Reading
Glaxo/Pfizer HIV Drug Collaboration
There’s an interesting story in the WSJ about a merger between the HIV-drug businesses at Glaxo and Pfizer. Some details from the story: Examples of cooperation among drug giants are unusual — Pfizer and Glaxo are the world’s top two drug companies by sales, respectively — since big pharmaceutical companies compete to sell products, attract ... Glaxo/Pfizer HIV Drug Collaboration
Randy Picker on the Google Book Settlement
Randy Picker has posted The Google Book Settlement: A New Orphan Works Monopoly? to SSRN. I have not been following the antitrust issues related to the settlement as closely as I should be and so I’m really looking forward to reading this. Here is the abstract: This paper considers the proposed settlement agreement between Google ... Randy Picker on the Google Book Settlement
Call for Papers: FTC/Northwestern University Second Annual Microeconomics Conference
The Federal Trade Commission and the Searle Center at Northwestern are hosting the second annual Microeconomics Conference. The conference will take place on November 19th and 20th at the FTC. Here’s the conference announcement and call for papers: The Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Economics, Northwestern University’s Searle Center on Law, Regulation and Economic Growth, ... Call for Papers: FTC/Northwestern University Second Annual Microeconomics Conference
Dont Call It A Comeback
When I came onto the job market in 2004, a number of advisers told me that I should not market myself as an “antitrust guy.” The prevailing view on the job market was that “antitrust was dead.” This perception was conveyed one way or another in interviews or conversations with folks in the legal academy. ... Dont Call It A Comeback
Shelanski from Berkeley to Georgetown
Congratulations to Professor Shelanski (HT: Brian Leiter). Berkeley’s strength in antitrust is impressive. Note that even with the likely departures of Joe Farrell (FTC Bureau of Economics), Carl Shapiro (DOJ) and Shelanski (Georgetown, and maybe into the administration?), the group still includes at least Dan Rubinfeld and Aaron Edlin and should still be considered amongst ... Shelanski from Berkeley to Georgetown
Is the Chicago School Really Dead? How Do You Know?
Answer: not by a long shot. Not in the Supreme Court. Not in the empirical economics literature. But perhaps according to at least one FTC Commissioner in the new FTC annual report: Commissioner J. Thomas Rosch believes the current financial crisis has undermined the Chicago school of economics that has so heavily influenced antitrust enforcement ... Is the Chicago School Really Dead? How Do You Know?
