This paper analyzes how changing the expected length of intellectual property (IP) protection affects economic growth and the welfare of rich and poor consumers. The analysis is based on a product-variety model with non-homothetic preferences and endogenous markups in which, in accordance with...

The Federal Communications Commission’s proposed net neutrality rules would, among other things, prohibit broadband access providers from prioritizing traffic, charging differential prices based on the priority status, imposing congestion-related charges, and adopting business models that...

Platforms, retailers, and other firms often offer their own products alongside products sold by competitors. We study the effects of this practice by combining a field experiment that hides brands owned by Amazon (i.e., private labels) from shoppers on Amazon.com with model-based counterfactuals...

This paper studies consumers' incentives to hide their purchase histories when the seller's prices depend on previous behavior. Through distinct channels, hiding both hinders and facilitates trade. Indeed, the social optimum involves hiding to some extent, yet not fully. Two opposing effects...

We suggest that consumer welfare is the appropriate standard for antitrust analysis across an array of industries. Unlike critiques that treat consumer welfare as a caricature within a simplistic early-1970s framework of “Chicago School” economics, we suggest that consumer welfare, as...

This article deals with the consumer welfare standard in competition law enforcement. It explores the inherent economic and legal 'geography' of this notion by looking beyond the borderlines of competition rules. While the consumer welfare standard has been widely discussed as a legal and...

A reform movement is underway in antitrust. Citing prior enforcement failures, deviations from the original intent of the antitrust laws, and overall rising levels of sector concentration, some are seeking to fundamentally alter or altogether replace the current consumer welfare standard, which...