Harvard Business Review editor Walter Frick and Boston University economist James Bessen’s new piece breaks down the conversation around competition and firm size by going beyond antitrust. Critics who tie the growth of leading tech services to monopolistic behavior are missing a key aspect of what makes some firms more competitive than others: Software. Highlights […]
Earlier this week, the Open Markets Institute (OMI) released a data set illustrating concentration by industry, and David Leonhardt highlighted it in the New York Times‘ opinion section. While the data itself isn’t anything new – concentration in some sectors has been rising for decades and is not always inherently anti-competitive – the way Open […]
Recent pieces from The Economist on competition and the tech industry all but ignore competition, the expansive definition of the consumer welfare standard, and the importance of the U.S. due process system. In particular, in rating the level of competition among larger firms, The Economist gives Apple a “green light” and Google and Facebook a […]
In a recent Wired piece, Tim Wu ignores economic and market realities in his call for regulation of leading tech services. Wu overlooks that the vibrancy of the tech industry is driven by the ongoing success of start-ups, relying on nostalgia instead of facts about the highly competitive modern technology market. Some research dispelling Wu’s […]
This week, the FTC held its sixth in a series of hearings about competition policy in the 21st century. Below are a few highlights from some leading experts in the field. Data is a widely available resource, not a commodity Daniel Sokol, University of Florida Levin College of Law: “Big data: There’s no one company […]
In a recent piece in Scientific American, economist Joseph Stiglitz writes that weak antitrust laws underpin the rise of inequality, arguing, “Their enforcement has weakened—at a time when, if anything, the laws themselves should have been strengthened.” Concentration has modestly increased across all industries measured at the national level. Yet, companies are increasingly competing in […]
As FTC hearings on competitiveness and consumer welfare continue this week, wanted to flag the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) new paper by senior fellow Joe Kennedy, titled, “Why The Consumer Welfare Standard Should Remain The Bedrock Of Antitrust Policy.” Kennedy’s core arguments are below. Contrary to critics, the consumer welfare standard goes well […]
On Wednesday, Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim spoke at the University of Haifa in Israel, saying “big platforms were once themselves start-ups,” and that regulators should “be cautious in any enforcement decision to not undermine the very innovation incentives that competition aims to protect.” Delrahim focused parts of his speech on data, raising numerous points […]
In case you missed the latest FTC hearings on competition and consumer welfare, we’ve amassed the 7 best highlights from experts. Quotes are below with the video linked. 1. Josh Wright, George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School: Compared to the E.U., the U.S. relies on empirical evidence of actual harm, not suspicion over potential harm. […]
Earlier today, several Roosevelt Institute scholars published a piece in Quartz arguing the USMCA, President Trump’s NAFTA replacement, should not have included the consumer welfare standard among its provisions because it is unequipped to deal with what the authors deem concentration problems. But not only does the tech sector not face many of the problems the authors […]
Hostility to innovation and technology diminishes the incredible Internet-enabled opportunities that leading tech services provide: empowering consumers, driving prices down and increasing choice, and providing platforms to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses. It has given us a golden era of entertainment, knowledge, and everything from fashion startups, to booming mom and pop stores, to the latest app.
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