This essay surveys the economic literature on interchange fees and the debate over whether interchange should be regulated and, if so, how. We consider, first, the operation of unitary payment systems, like American Express, in the context of the recent economic literature on two-sided markets,...

Software platforms are a critical component of the computer systems underpinning leading edge products ranging from third generation mobile phones to video games. After describing some key economic features of computer systems and software platforms, the paper presents case studies of personal...

This short essay, forthcoming in Competition Policy International, summarizes and evaluates Jeffrey Rohlfs' 1974 Bell Journal paper, "A Theory of Interdependent Demand for a Telecommunications Service." Rohlfs' work helped create a large literature on markets with network externalities in which...

Though U.S. manufacturing output recovered more slowly from the Great Recession than historical experience would have predicted, manufacturing employment, which peaked in 1979, grew between 2010 and 2017. This was the second-longest period of employment growth in the entire post-war period....

This essay provides an overview of the major emissions trading programs of the past thirty years on which significant documentation exists, and draws a number of important lessons for future applications of this environmental policy instrument. References to a larger number of other emissions...