TOTM Authors Make SSRN Top 10 Lists
I am pleased to announce that that Thom’s excellent and provocative paper on Weyerhaeuser and the Search for Antitrust’s Holy Grail has made the Top 10 list (at #10) for Antitrust & Regulated Industries and Antitrust Law and Policy (#7). Congrats Thom! On top of that, I am doubly pleased that my own Behavioral Law ... TOTM Authors Make SSRN Top 10 Lists
Nobel Prize to Hurwicz, Maskin and Myerson
“for having laid the foundations of mechanism design theory.” Here’s a blurb from the Nobel website on mechanism design: Mechanism design theory, initiated by Leonid Hurwicz and further developed by Eric Maskin and Roger Myerson, has greatly enhanced our understanding of the properties of optimal allocation mechanisms in such situations, accounting for individuals’ incentives and ... Nobel Prize to Hurwicz, Maskin and Myerson
Al Gore = Arthur Laffer?
Greg Mankiw explains.
Peking University IEPR Antitrust Conference
Today marked the completion of the J. Mirrlees Institute of Economic Policy Research (IEPR) Conference on China’s Competition Policy and Anti-Monopoly Law at Peking University in Beijing. I was thrilled to be invited to participate in the conference. A special thanks to Hongbin Cai of Peking University for the invitation, and for organizing an all ... Peking University IEPR Antitrust Conference
Goolsbee (and Obama?) on Free Trade
Here is Senator Obama’s economic advisor Austan Goolsbee on globalization and free trade (as described by George Will in his recent column): “Globalization” means free trade and various deregulations that supposedly put downward pressure on American wages because of imports from low-wage countries. Goolsbee, however, says globalization is responsible for “a small fraction” of today’s ... Goolsbee (and Obama?) on Free Trade
Glen Whitman on Waldfogel's Tyranny of the Market
Over at Agoraphilia, Glen Whitman has a series of entertaining posts applying economic logic to a number of interesting topics. If you read Glen on a regular basis, than you won’t be surprised that the topics include things like restroom hand dryers and toilet seat signaling. But the post that caught my attention this week ... Glen Whitman on Waldfogel's Tyranny of the Market
Predicting the Nobel Again …
Greg Mankiw and Tyler Cowen have started the speculation. Cowen prefers “Anne Krueger, Jagdish Bhagwati, and Gordon Tullock for their work on rent-seeking” but predicts a behavioral finance prize to Fama, Thaler & French or a prize for research on the principal-agent theory of the firm to Williamson and/or Tirole. Mankiw predicts Fama, Feldstein, or ... Predicting the Nobel Again …
Financial Times Email Forum on Microsoft CFI
Richard Epstein and Harry First answer email questions about the Microsoft CFI decision here. The answers predictably provide very different perspectives on the merits of the decision and its likely impact on consumer welfare. HT: Chicago Law Blog.
Thom, Tom, and Section 2
I highly recommend co-blogger Thom’s paper (discussed in this post) for those interested in the current Section 2 debate over the appropriate standard for exclusionary conduct. While I tend to fall into the camp that views unilateral firm conduct as too diverse for a “holy grail” test to make sense, and therefore support different tests ... Thom, Tom, and Section 2
Hazlett on Property Rights and Innovation
My colleague Tom Hazlett has a characteristically insightful essay in the Financial Times this week entitled “How the Walled Garden Promotes Innovation.” In response to critics that argue that “only a device that is optimised for any application and capable of accessing any network is efficient,” Hazlett offers Apple and DoCoMo as examples of how ... Hazlett on Property Rights and Innovation
Edwards, Antitrust, and the Return of Von's Grocery?
AAI continues its series of antitrust policy statements from presidential candidates with a submission from John Edwards. Again, I’m very pleased that the AAI was successful in getting this series of submissions together and inducing candidates to share their thoughts on antitrust policy. So what does Edwards have to say? Edwards’ statement has in common ... Edwards, Antitrust, and the Return of Von's Grocery?
An Online Experiment in Voluntary Pricing
I’ve previously discussed the voluntary pricing strategy taken by restaurants and cafes in a handful of states to offer food and drink for free and allow customers to decide whether and how much they would pay.  I was rather skeptical about the profitability of this strategy in the retail setting. But it looks like we ... An Online Experiment in Voluntary Pricing
