Scholarship Archives - International Center for Law & Economics

September 17, 2019

A Review of the Empirical Evidence on the Effects of Market Concentration and Mergers in the Wireless Telecommunications Industry

Eric Fruits & Gus Hurwitz & Geoffrey A. Manne & Julian Morris & Alec Stapp

The merger between T-Mobile and Sprint has been characterized as a “4-to-3 merger” because after the merger there will be 3 national mobile network operators. Concerns have been raised regarding…

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

August 7, 2019

Governing the Patent Commons

Dirk Auer & Julian Morris

We suggest that antitrust authorities and courts should draw inspiration from acclaimed scholarship regarding both the evolution of cooperation and the management of common-pool resources.

Intellectual Property

June 25, 2019

Chevron 's Political Domain: W(h)ither Step Three

Gus Hurwitz

This Essay takes prior work on Chevron in a new direction, arguing that broad deference doctrines have the largely unrecognized but particularly pernicious effect of increasing the political gridlock and politicization of the legislative process.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

March 28, 2019

Amazon is not essential, except to the EU’s flawed investigations

Kristian Stout & Geoffrey A. Manne

Amazon has largely avoided the crosshairs of antitrust enforcers to date (leaving aside the embarrassing dangerous threats of arbitrary enforcement by some US presidential candidates). The reasons seem obvious: in the US it handles a mere 5% of all retail sales (with lower shares in the EU), and it consistently provides access to a wide array of affordable goods.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

March 25, 2019

Is European Competition Law Protectionist? Unpacking the Commission’s Unflattering Track record

Dirk Auer & Geoffrey A. Manne

Last month, the European Commission slapped another fine upon Google for infringing European competition rules (€1.49 billion this time). This brings Google’s contribution to the EU budget to a dizzying total of €8.25 billion (to put this into perspective, the total EU budget for 2019 is €165.8 billion).

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

February 1, 2019

STRUCTURALIST INNOVATION: A SHAKY LEGAL PRESUMPTION IN NEED OF AN OVERHAUL

Dirk Auer

How does a market’s structure affect innovation? This crucial question has occupied the world’s brightest economists for almost a century, from Schumpeter who found that monopoly was optimal, through Arrow who concluded that competitive market structures were key, to the endogenous growth scholars who empirically derived an inverted-U relationship between market concentration and innovation.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

January 1, 2019

When “Reasonable” Isn’t: The FTC’s Standard-less Data Security Standard

Kristian Stout & Geoffrey A. Manne

Although the FTC is well-staffed with highly skilled economists, its approach to data security is disappointingly light on economic analysis. The unfortunate result of this lacuna is an approach to these complex issues lacking in analytical rigor and the humility borne of analysis grounded in sound economics.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

December 19, 2018

Antitrust Out of Focus: The FTC Misses the Mark In Dogged Pursuit of 1-800’s Trademark Settlements

Geoffrey A. Manne & Joshua Wright & Hal Singer

On November 14, 2018, the Federal Trade Commission (“Commission”) issued an opinion condemning as an antitrust violation trademark settlement agreements between 1-800 Contacts (“1-800”) and fourteen online sellers of contact lenses.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

October 30, 2018

The Case for an Innovation Principle: A Comparative Law and Economics Analysis

Aurelien Portuese

After the rise of the precautionary principle (or approach) in the late 1990s in a number of jurisdictions, the economic consequences of this newly created principle of law have unfolded.

Innovation & The New Economy

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