Showing archive for: “Economics”
The Case of the Missing Sale: The FTC’s Personalized-Pricing Blind Spot
Suppose a retailer charges $10 for a service. One customer values it at $11 and buys it. Another values it at $8 and walks away. The retailer sends the second customer a $3 coupon. She pays $7, gets something worth $8 to her, and the retailer makes a sale it otherwise would have missed. The ... The Case of the Missing Sale: The FTC’s Personalized-Pricing Blind Spot
‘The Economics of the Marriage Contract: Theories and Evidence,’ by Niko Matouschek and Imran Rasul
Marriage is a natural subject for law & economics scholars. From Gary Becker’s “A Treatise on the Family” (1981) to Margaret Brinig’s “From Contract to Covenant” (2000), scholars have expanded our understanding of romantic love by examining it through an economic lens. Some object that bringing law & economics into marriage risks coarsening and cheapening ... ‘The Economics of the Marriage Contract: Theories and Evidence,’ by Niko Matouschek and Imran Rasul
‘Incomplete Contracts and the Theory of Contract Design,’ by Robert Scott and George Triantis
Economists and lawyers know that almost every contract is incomplete. Contracts routinely omit or leave undefined important terms, and they rarely anticipate every circumstance that might frustrate performance. The reason is simple: It makes little sense to spend $1,000 drafting a provision that has an expected value of only $100. Parties therefore leave lower-value contingencies ... ‘Incomplete Contracts and the Theory of Contract Design,’ by Robert Scott and George Triantis
Reserve Judgment: The FTC Takes on Amazon’s Ad Auctions
The price to beat in Amazon’s advertising auctions may not have come from another advertiser at all, according to a lawsuit filed Aug. 31 by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). In the complaint, the FTC alleges that Amazon quietly set the price itself, promising one pricing rule and using another. That allegation could support a ... Reserve Judgment: The FTC Takes on Amazon’s Ad Auctions
Your Price May Vary: The FTC’s Personalized-Pricing Puzzle
A price that knows your name may be creepy. It may also be a bargain. That ambiguity sits at the heart of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) proposed enforcement policy statement on personalized pricing, which opens with a candid admission: The practice is “not well understood,” and its effects on consumers remain “unclear.” That uncertainty ... Your Price May Vary: The FTC’s Personalized-Pricing Puzzle
‘The Use of Knowledge in Society,’ by Friedrich A. Hayek
The wealth and technological sophistication of modern society are readily apparent. Less visible, but no less remarkable, is its ability to coordinate the actions of billions of people who know almost nothing about one another’s circumstances. Every day we make decisions without possessing most of the information on which those decisions ultimately depend. We purchase ... ‘The Use of Knowledge in Society,’ by Friedrich A. Hayek
‘Deliberation as Self-Discovery and Institutions for Political Speech,’ by Catherine Hafer and Dimitri Landa
The We Are What We Read series is, in part, about what defines the field of law & economics. The field’s natural home lies in applications that are, well, economic. Hence its longstanding—and now standard—role in contracts, corporations, antitrust, torts, and other areas. For this selection, I wanted to show how law & economics can ... ‘Deliberation as Self-Discovery and Institutions for Political Speech,’ by Catherine Hafer and Dimitri Landa
A Patent, a Blood Test, and 20 Years of Waiting
A blood test now helps doctors decide, in about 15 minutes, whether a patient with a suspected brain injury needs a CT scan. It took about 20 years to get there. That gap between scientific promise and clinical use tells us more about American innovation policy than most congressional hearings ever will. At one such ... A Patent, a Blood Test, and 20 Years of Waiting
Private Credit, Public Panic: Why Life Insurers Are Stronger Than the Headlines Suggest
Private credit has become the financial system’s latest designated villain: opaque, fast-growing, and—depending on the headline—one bad quarter away from dragging insurers, banks, and retirees down with it. For the past two years, warnings about life insurers’ private-credit investments have become a staple of financial commentary. In 2024, the International Monetary Fund cautioned that private ... Private Credit, Public Panic: Why Life Insurers Are Stronger Than the Headlines Suggest
The Fatal Conceit Gets a GPU Cluster: Bernie Sanders’ Plan to Socialize AI
The American A.I. Sovereign Wealth Fund Act rests on a sweeping claim about the ownership of value created by artificial intelligence. Because AI models are trained on data generated by the public, the bill treats the resulting gains as a public resource subject to state control and redistribution. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) proposal would require ... The Fatal Conceit Gets a GPU Cluster: Bernie Sanders’ Plan to Socialize AI
Artificial Intelligence, Natural Ignorance
Everyone in Washington seems to agree that artificial intelligence must be governed. The only real dispute is who gets the steering wheel. Congress? Federal agencies? State legislatures? Some newly minted task force with a long acronym and a taste for reporting requirements? That debate is already too narrow. President Donald Trump’s recent executive order on ... Artificial Intelligence, Natural Ignorance
In Space, No One Can See Your HHI
Two rocket companies walk into an antitrust review. They leave as a de facto monopoly. And somehow, the punchline may be that this was good for consumers, taxpayers, and maybe even competition. A little context. In 2006, Boeing and Lockheed Martin combined their launch divisions into a joint venture called United Launch Alliance (ULA). That’s ... In Space, No One Can See Your HHI
