Showing archive for: “Economics”
The essence of Josh Wright’s FTC tenure was to ensure that benefits outweigh costs; the rest is commentary
As the organizer of this retrospective on Josh Wright’s tenure as FTC Commissioner, I have the (self-conferred) honor of closing out the symposium. When Josh was confirmed I wrote that: The FTC will benefit enormously from Josh’s expertise and his error cost approach to antitrust and consumer protection law will be a tremendous asset to ... The essence of Josh Wright’s FTC tenure was to ensure that benefits outweigh costs; the rest is commentary
Imagine
Imagine a world where competition and consumer protection authorities base their final decisions on scientific evidence of potential harm. Imagine a world where well-intentioned policymakers do not use “possibility theorems” to rationalize decisions that are, in reality, based on idiosyncratic biases or beliefs. Imagine a world where “harm” is measured using a scientific yardstick that ... Imagine
Josh Wright’s Unfinished Legacy: Reforming FTC Consumer Protection Enforcement
Josh Wright will doubtless be remembered for transforming how FTC polices competition. Between finally defining Unfair Methods of Competition (UMC), and his twelve dissents and multiple speeches about competition matters, he re-grounded competition policy in the error-cost framework: weighing not only costs against benefits, but also the likelihood of getting it wrong against the likelihood ... Josh Wright’s Unfinished Legacy: Reforming FTC Consumer Protection Enforcement
Josh Wright, Commissioner-Provocateur
Much ink will be spilled at this site lauding Commissioner Joshua (Josh) Wright’s many contributions to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and justly so. I will focus narrowly on Josh Wright as a law and economics “provocateur,” who used his writings and speeches to “stir the pot” and subject the FTC’s actions to a law ... Josh Wright, Commissioner-Provocateur
The D.C. Circuit Subjects USDA Pork Barrel Politics to Scrutiny – Will the Lower Court Bring Home the “Economic Liberties” Bacon?
Recently, I discussed at this site the Supreme Court’s imposition of takings liability on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (“USDA”), because USDA fined a small raisin grower for refusing to cooperate with the California Raisins Marketing Order – which, stripped of the fancy verbiage, is little more than a government-supervised output limitation cartel. The California ... The D.C. Circuit Subjects USDA Pork Barrel Politics to Scrutiny – Will the Lower Court Bring Home the “Economic Liberties” Bacon?
ICLE and leading academics file amicus brief urging the court to overturn the FCC’s illegal net neutrality order
Yesterday, the International Center for Law & Economics, together with Professor Gus Hurwitz, Nebraska College of Law, and nine other scholars of law and economics, filed an amicus brief in the DC Circuit explaining why the court should vacate the FCC’s 2015 Open Internet Order. A few key points from ICLE’s brief follow, but you can read a longer summary ... ICLE and leading academics file amicus brief urging the court to overturn the FCC’s illegal net neutrality order
The OECD Provides Further Guidance on Assessing the Anticompetitive Impact of Laws and Regulations
The most welfare-inimical restrictions on competition stem from governmental action, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s newly promulgated “Competition Assessment Toolkit, Volume 3: Operational Manual” (“Toolkit 3,” approved by the OECD in late June 2015) provides useful additional guidance on how to evaluate and tackle such harmful market distortions. Toolkit 3 is a ... The OECD Provides Further Guidance on Assessing the Anticompetitive Impact of Laws and Regulations
One Step Forward: The Supremes Add Some Bite to Environmental Cost-Benefit Analysis
Today, in Michigan v. EPA, a five-Justice Supreme Court majority (Antonin Scalia, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito, with Thomas issuing a separate concurrence) held that the Clean Air Act requires the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to consider costs, including the cost of compliance, when deciding ... One Step Forward: The Supremes Add Some Bite to Environmental Cost-Benefit Analysis
The Good, Bad, and the Ugly of the EU’s Proposed Data Protection Regulation
Nearly all economists from across the political spectrum agree: free trade is good. Yet free trade agreements are not always the same thing as free trade. Whether we’re talking about the Trans-Pacific Partnership or the European Union’s Digital Single Market (DSM) initiative, the question is always whether the agreement in question is reducing barriers to ... The Good, Bad, and the Ugly of the EU’s Proposed Data Protection Regulation
Commissioner Wright on the inappropriate use of structural presumptions in merger analysis & a great ABA program on the same
The FTC recently required divestitures in two merger investigations (here and here), based largely on the majority’s conclusion that [when] a proposed merger significantly increases concentration in an already highly concentrated market, a presumption of competitive harm is justified under both the Guidelines and well-established case law.” (Emphasis added). Commissioner Wright dissented in both matters ... Commissioner Wright on the inappropriate use of structural presumptions in merger analysis & a great ABA program on the same
More than New International Trade Deals are Needed to Liberalize International Trade and Promote Economic Freedom
During the recent debate over whether to grant the Obama Administration “trade promotion authority” (TPA or fast track) to enter into major international trade agreements (such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP), little attention has been directed to the problem of remaining anticompetitive governmental regulatory obstacles to liberalized trade and free markets. Those remaining obstacles, ... More than New International Trade Deals are Needed to Liberalize International Trade and Promote Economic Freedom
Red Tape Rising: The Heritage Foundation Spotlights the Excesses of the Regulatory State During the Obama Administration and Recommends Reforms
Understanding the nature and extent of the growth of the federal regulatory state is vital to sound policymaking. Taking that to heart, over the last decade the Heritage Foundation has issued a series of reports measuring trends in federal regulatory activity. On May 11 of this year, Heritage released its most recent regulatory study, “Red ... Red Tape Rising: The Heritage Foundation Spotlights the Excesses of the Regulatory State During the Obama Administration and Recommends Reforms
