A tying arrangement is a seller’s requirement that a customer may purchase its “tying” product only by taking its “tied” product. In a variable proportion tie the purchaser can vary the amount of the tied product. For example, a customer might purchase a single printer, but either a...

Empirical examinations into the determinants of cartel overcharges are limited in the economic literature on collusion. We review the literature and perform a meta-analysis model of overcharges using data on 112 contemporary, penalized bid-rigging episodes over 27 years. We find that the price...

Taking a dynamic and reflexive perspective on the interaction between technology, law and economics, the study focuses on the role of competition in shaping the economic, but also regulatory, eco-system in which blockchain technology becomes embedded. There is the promise that the technology and...

U.S. industries are facing intense pressures to become more energy efficient, driven by the need to lower the carbon footprints of energy-intensive sectors and to achieve energy security. A successful transition to a new era of efficient, low-carbon electricity production and usage will require...

Agencies and legislators have raised concerns that acquisitions backed by private equity (PE) threaten competition, but few, if any, have offered explanations as to why they pose a unique threat. In this article, we argue that PE-backed acquisitions may avoid antitrust enforcement because they...

Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google, as well as Twitter – the FANG companies – have transformed society with both positive and negative effects. Soaring consumer access to information, news, social networks, and entertainment has been stimulated by the ever-more ubiquitous and falling...

Free!! Google and Facebook!!! We all know them, what to worry about? Everything! The giants of the internet are expanding into every corner of the economy, politics and our lives. They control the majority of digital advertising; Alphabet, Google's parent, and Facebook receive more than 60...

Competition and a competitive environment serve as a crucial foundation for the effective use of resources and the growth of economy, pushing enterprises to be more efficient, limit costs, and spend more in inventing and developing new goods. Customers may obtain more advantages at a lesser cost...

We take for granted that the basic choice in public policy is between allocation of resources by government bureaucracy, on the one hand, or allocation by markets, on the other. But that dichotomy is false, and at least under contemporary circumstances it is more accurate to describe the choice...

The rise of big data in the global economy has led to concerns about antitrust and consumer protection, but policy makers often treat the two areas separately. The separate treatment is justified in classical markets because antitrust tends to focus on firm-to-firm interactions, while consumer...