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The International Centre for Law & Economics (ICLE) seeks to commission one or more detailed studies into the effects of targeted advertising on competition, innovation, . . .
The International Centre for Law & Economics (ICLE) seeks to commission one or more detailed studies into the effects of targeted advertising on competition, innovation, and consumer welfare in the wider economy.
While contemporary debates about targeted online ads have considered the effect of data collection on user privacy, publishers, and the ad intermediaries themselves, the effects of ad targeting on the companies that use these ads, the markets they operate in, and the consumers who purchase advertised products are less widely discussed and well-understood.
We are particularly interested in work that explores the following areas:
We are also happy to consider other proposed topics or approaches addressing issues along these or similar lines.
ICLE would welcome short (less than one page) proposals to carry out a study into some or all of these areas, with particular preference for empirical work.
Funding levels and grant periods will be commensurate with the requirements of the research and the potential for the research to advance an understanding of critical issues.
ICLE will work with the authors of accepted proposals to disseminate the research findings.
Please email [email protected] for further information. We would appreciate indications of interest by Nov. 1, but are flexible about further deadlines.
The International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan global research and policy center. ICLE works with more than fifty affiliated scholars and research centers around the world to promote the use of evidence-based methodologies in developing sensible, economically grounded policies that will promote consumer welfare and enable markets and innovation to flourish.
Business Leader – ICLE Director of Competition Policy Sam Bowman was cited by Business Leader in a story about his co-authored report finding that proposed U.K. rules limiting . . .
Business Leader – ICLE Director of Competition Policy Sam Bowman was cited by Business Leader in a story about his co-authored report finding that proposed U.K. rules limiting Big Tech firms’ ability to engage in mergers and acquisitions would the nation’s startup economy. The full story is available here.
The authors also fear it could leave the UK relatively worse off as a place to set up a tech business if other countries, especially the United States, don’t follow suit. Sam Bowman, the report’s co-author, said: “The UK government has misjudged the prospects for a similar crackdown on tech M&A in the United States, and as a result may back Britain into a corner. If we proceed with such stringent rules blocking these deals, but the US does not, the UK will become a terrible place to found a tech startup, since it will be so much harder to be acquired here than it would be in Silicon Valley. Even the European Union is not proposing such anti-tech rules. The UK startup scene is something to be proud of – it would be a profound mistake to make its life so much harder, and leave the UK as a global outlier.”
PORTLAND, Ore. (Sept. 27, 2021) — As Congress takes up bipartisan infrastructure legislation this week that would appropriate $65 billion for broadband infrastructure, as well as . . .
PORTLAND, Ore. (Sept. 27, 2021) — As Congress takes up bipartisan infrastructure legislation this week that would appropriate $65 billion for broadband infrastructure, as well as billions more in a $3.5 trillion reconciliation package, experts from the International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE) are available to discuss how best to address the nation’s broadband needs.
In a major ICLE white paper published in June, ICLE President Geoffrey Manne, Director of Innovation Policy Kristian Stout, and Associate Director of Legal Research Ben Sperry critiqued widespread claims that the broadband market is uncompetitive. The authors note that 95.6% of the population has access to at least 25/3 Mbps service and that, even where concentration can be observed in broadband markets, it has not been correlated with negative outcomes, such as decreased productivity or increased quality-adjusted prices.
Given Congress’ intent to spent tens of billions of dollars on broadband subsidies, the ICLE research counsels that such programs focus on the 4.4% of consumers who currently lack any access to broadband. Congress also could encourage greater broadband buildout by addressing costly local pole-attachment requirements and rules that a recipient of rural broadband subsidies must be deemed an Eligible Telecommunications Carrier (ETC) by a relevant state regulator.
In addition to the white paper, ICLE has published several short-form explainers in recent months that each address major issues relevant to broadband buildout:
Media interested in interviewing or booking Geoffrey Manne to discuss broadband competition may reach him at [email protected] or (503) 780-8515. Kristian Stout is available at [email protected] or (732) 690-0375.
Business Insider – ICLE Director of Competition Policy Sam Bowman was cited by Business Insider in a story about the role that unaffordable housing plays in . . .
Business Insider – ICLE Director of Competition Policy Sam Bowman was cited by Business Insider in a story about the role that unaffordable housing plays in a spate of persistent social problems. The full story is available here.
Shoring up home supply and allowing for denser construction could directly level the playing field, economists Sam Bowman and Ben Southwood wrote for the Works in Progress online magazine, with housing advocate John Myers. “Increasing the supply of housing and commercial space, while ensuring that it benefits existing residents, could turn this zero-sum situation into one where everyone can be better off,” they added.
Shoring up home supply and allowing for denser construction could directly level the playing field, economists Sam Bowman and Ben Southwood wrote for the Works in Progress online magazine, with housing advocate John Myers.
“Increasing the supply of housing and commercial space, while ensuring that it benefits existing residents, could turn this zero-sum situation into one where everyone can be better off,” they added.
The Lund Report – ICLE Chief Economist Eric Fruits was cited by The Lund Report in a story about Oregon’s public-employee pensions crisis. You can read . . .
The Lund Report – ICLE Chief Economist Eric Fruits was cited by The Lund Report in a story about Oregon’s public-employee pensions crisis. You can read the full piece here.
“No one wants to talk about the biggest problem facing Oregon. It’s not the pandemic. It’s not homelessness. It’s not racial justice. The biggest crisis facing Oregon is its public employee retirement system, or PERS,” asserted Eric Fruits, vice president of research at the Cascade Policy Institute, in a June opinion piece that ran in many news outlets.
ClimateWire – ICLE Editor-in-Chief R.J. Lehmann was quoted by ClimateWire about a congressional proposal to forgive the National Flood Insurance Program’s more than $20 billion in debt . . .
ClimateWire – ICLE Editor-in-Chief R.J. Lehmann was quoted by ClimateWire about a congressional proposal to forgive the National Flood Insurance Program’s more than $20 billion in debt to the U.S. Treasury. The full story is available here.
“It’s a reasonable thing to seek to address. There are people who cannot pay risk-based rates,” said R.J. Lehmann, a flood insurance expert at the International Center for Law & Economics. …Some people such as Lehmann, the insurance expert, wanted the debt to force FEMA to make its insurance program better able to sustain itself. The proposed debt forgiveness “is significant in that it amounts to declaring surrender on significant NFIP reform that looks to address the structural issues of the program — that it does not raise enough money and subsidizes developments in risky, environmentally sensitive regions,” Lehmann said.
“It’s a reasonable thing to seek to address. There are people who cannot pay risk-based rates,” said R.J. Lehmann, a flood insurance expert at the International Center for Law & Economics.
…Some people such as Lehmann, the insurance expert, wanted the debt to force FEMA to make its insurance program better able to sustain itself.
The proposed debt forgiveness “is significant in that it amounts to declaring surrender on significant NFIP reform that looks to address the structural issues of the program — that it does not raise enough money and subsidizes developments in risky, environmentally sensitive regions,” Lehmann said.
Washington Policy Center – ICLE Editor-in-Chief Ian Adams was mentioned in a blog post by the Washington Policy Center about his panel appearance at the recent . . .
Washington Policy Center – ICLE Editor-in-Chief Ian Adams was mentioned in a blog post by the Washington Policy Center about his panel appearance at the recent State Policy Network conference in Orlando. The full post is available here.
The event started with “The Techlash,” a session moderated by former Congresswoman Mia Love (Center for Growth and Opportunity) interviewing Ian Adams (International Center for Law and Economics), Jessica Melugin (Competitive Entterprise Institute), and Will Rinehart (Center for Growth and Opportunity).
PORTLAND, Ore. (Sept. 14, 2021) — As the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) considers at its Sept. 15 open meeting whether to withdraw guidelines for vertical . . .
PORTLAND, Ore. (Sept. 14, 2021) — As the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) considers at its Sept. 15 open meeting whether to withdraw guidelines for vertical mergers that the commission adopted in June 2020, antitrust and competition experts from the International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE) are available to discuss the weak theoretical grounding of efforts to expand vertical merger enforcement.
In comments submitted to the commission in February 2020 regarding the then-proposed guidelines, ICLE President Geoffrey Manne and then-Associate Director Kristian Stout noted that, while there may have been a need to update the FTC’s 1984 Nonhorizontal Merger Guidelines, it was not in any way clear that “errors in judicial decisions or enforcement practices have led to widespread problems that are addressed by the proposed changes.”
“We certainly advocate for clarity in the agencies’ enforcement practice with respect to vertical integration, but caution that the agencies carefully consider whether the status quo—as out of date as it may be—is truly inferior to updates that introduce more ambiguity,” Manne and Stout wrote at the time.
Manne and Stout, along with ICLE Chief Economist Eric Fruits, also published a 2020 paper in the the University of Kansas Law Review examining popular and academic complaints about vertical integration, including vertical mergers. The ICLE scholars ultimately found that the “possibility theorems offered by opponents of vertical mergers to justify invigorated enforcement against them rely on fragile claims that ignore the meaningful distinction between contracts and mergers, and between harms that are likely to arise via horizontal integration and those by vertical integration.”
We invite those following the FTC decision to refer to these resources, as well as to the digital symposium that ICLE hosted in February 2020 at the Truth on the Market website that invited numerous respected Law & Economics scholars to weigh in on the then-draft FTC vertical merger guidelines.
Media interested in interviewing or booking Geoffrey Manne to discuss the subject of vertical mergers may reach him at [email protected] or (503) 780-8515. ICLE Director of Competition Policy Sam Bowman is also available to respond to the FTC decision, and can be reached at [email protected] or +07-59-682-6323.
Law360 – ICLE Director of Competition Policy Sam Bowman was quoted by Law360 in a story about a federal district court order enjoining Apple from enforcing its . . .
Law360 – ICLE Director of Competition Policy Sam Bowman was quoted by Law360 in a story about a federal district court order enjoining Apple from enforcing its anti-steering policy. The full story is available (behind a subscriber firewall) here.
The International Center for Law & Economics issued a statement Friday praising the ruling for finding that Apple did not violate antitrust law but blasted the injunction banning the anti-steering rules. The group’s director of competition policy, Sam Bowman, said the order is vaguely written and is likely to be interpreted differently by the different parties involved. “If it allows app developers to link users outside of the in-app payments flow, and bypass Apple’s … fees, it would enable free riding and undermine the incentive for Apple to invest” in its mobile devices, Bowman said, adding that it also reduces incentives for Apple’s competitors to invest “in whatever product might someday displace it through competition.” “The winners are likely to be large companies like Epic, Amazon, and Match, who will be able to keep more profit for themselves, but it is hard to see how either consumers or innovation will benefit,” Bowman said.
The International Center for Law & Economics issued a statement Friday praising the ruling for finding that Apple did not violate antitrust law but blasted the injunction banning the anti-steering rules. The group’s director of competition policy, Sam Bowman, said the order is vaguely written and is likely to be interpreted differently by the different parties involved.
“If it allows app developers to link users outside of the in-app payments flow, and bypass Apple’s … fees, it would enable free riding and undermine the incentive for Apple to invest” in its mobile devices, Bowman said, adding that it also reduces incentives for Apple’s competitors to invest “in whatever product might someday displace it through competition.”
“The winners are likely to be large companies like Epic, Amazon, and Match, who will be able to keep more profit for themselves, but it is hard to see how either consumers or innovation will benefit,” Bowman said.
