Problems with the Evidence of Anticompetitive Harm from Common Ownership
Mike Sykuta and I have been blogging about our new paper responding to scholars who contend that institutional investors’ common ownership of small stakes in competing firms significantly reduces market competition and should be restricted. (FTC Commissioner Noah Phillips cited the paper yesterday in his excellent prepared remarks on common ownership.) Mike first described the ... Problems with the Evidence of Anticompetitive Harm from Common Ownership
Problems With the Theory of Anticompetitive Harm from Common Ownership
Mike Sykuta and I have been blogging about our recent paper on so-called “common ownership” by institutional investors like Vanguard, BlackRock, Fidelity, and State Street. Following my initial post, Mike described the purported problem with institutional investors’ common ownership of small stakes in competing firms. As Mike explained, the theory of anticompetitive harm holds that small-stakes ... Problems With the Theory of Anticompetitive Harm from Common Ownership
The Case for Doing Nothing About Common Ownership of Small Stakes in Competing Firms
One of the hottest antitrust topics of late has been institutional investors’ “common ownership” of minority stakes in competing firms. Writing in the Harvard Law Review, Einer Elhauge proclaimed that “[a]n economic blockbuster has recently been exposed”—namely, “[a] small group of institutions has acquired large shareholdings in horizontal competitors throughout our economy, causing them to ... The Case for Doing Nothing About Common Ownership of Small Stakes in Competing Firms
Abandon Title II, Return to Antitrust
Just in time for tomorrow’s FCC vote on repeal of its order classifying Internet Service Providers as common carriers, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has published my op-ed entitled The FCC Should Abandon Title II and Return to Antitrust. Here’s the full text: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will soon vote on whether to repeal an ... Abandon Title II, Return to Antitrust
Pai’s Right on Net Neutrality and Title II
As I explain in my new book, How to Regulate, sound regulation requires thinking like a doctor. When addressing some “disease” that reduces social welfare, policymakers should catalog the available “remedies” for the problem, consider the implementation difficulties and “side effects” of each, and select the remedy that offers the greatest net benefit. If we ... Pai’s Right on Net Neutrality and Title II
Some Good News (Maybe?) from DOJ’s Antitrust Division
I remain deeply skeptical of any antitrust challenge to the AT&T/Time Warner merger. Vertical mergers like this one between a content producer and a distributor are usually efficiency-enhancing. The theories of anticompetitive harm here rely on a number of implausible assumptions — e.g., that the combined company would raise content prices (currently set at profit-maximizing ... Some Good News (Maybe?) from DOJ’s Antitrust Division
Just in Time for Christmas: How to Regulate
My new book, How to Regulate: A Guide for Policymakers, is now available on Amazon. Inform Santa! The book, published by Cambridge University Press, attempts to fill what I think is a huge hole in legal education: It focuses on the substance of regulation and sets forth principles for designing regulatory approaches that will maximize social ... Just in Time for Christmas: How to Regulate
Thom Lambert on Fred McChesney
I didn’t know Fred as well as most of the others who have provided such fine tributes here. As they have attested, he was a first-rate scholar, an inspiring teaching, and a devoted friend. From my own experience with him, I can add that he was deliberate about investing in the next generation of market-oriented ... Thom Lambert on Fred McChesney
When Should the Government Provide Public Goods?
My new book, How to Regulate: A Guide for Policymakers, will be published in a few weeks. A while back, I promised a series of posts on the book’s key chapters. I posted an overview of the book and a description of the book’s chapter on externalities. I then got busy on another writing project ... When Should the Government Provide Public Goods?
How to Regulate: Externalities
Following is the second in a series of posts on my forthcoming book, How to Regulate: A Guide for Policy Makers (Cambridge Univ. Press 2017). The initial post is here. As I mentioned in my first post, How to Regulate examines the market failures (and other private ordering defects) that have traditionally been invoked as ... How to Regulate: Externalities
How to Regulate: An Overview
So I’ve just finished writing a book (hence my long hiatus from Truth on the Market). Now that the draft is out of my hands and with the publisher (Cambridge University Press), I figured it’s a good time to rejoin my colleagues here at TOTM. To get back into the swing of things, I’m planning ... How to Regulate: An Overview
My Office Door
University professors often post things on their office doors—photos, news clippings, conference posters, political cartoons. I’ve never been much for that. The objective, I assume, is to express something about yourself: who you are, what interests you, what values you hold. I’ve never participated in this custom because I haven’t wanted to alienate students who ... My Office Door
