Regulatory uncertainty has been inherent to climate change in the absence of a successor to the Kyoto Protocol and with ongoing policy discussions on how to proceed. To facilitate steps to help address the issue, many companies have called for more certainty and a stable policy framework. What...

Filing of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University to the Federal Trade Commission for the FTC's June 9, 2015 workshop on "The “Sharing” Economy: Issues Facing Platforms, Participants, and Regulators." The Mercatus Center at George Mason University is dedicated to advancing knowledge...

The rise of the sharing economy has changed how many Americans commute, shop, vacation, and borrow. It has also disrupted long-established industries, from taxis to hotels, and has confounded policymakers. In particular, regulators are trying to determine how to apply many of the traditional...

An emerging trend in financial services is banks' increasingly common refusal to do business with industries for political reasons rather than for traditional business justifications. Banks' refusals are often explained by a desire to make a difference or send a message. While this desire may...

An emerging trend in financial services is banks’ increasingly common refusal to do business with industries for political reasons rather than for traditional business justifications. Banks’ refusals are often explained by a desire to make a difference or send a message. While this desire...

We examine a deregulation of German pharmacists to assess its effects on retail and labor markets. Our theoretical model suggests that firms with high managerial efficiency open more stores per firm and have higher labor demand due to the reform. We find a sharp persistent increase in entry...

This paper theoretically analyzes the role of reference prices on competition and welfare in a context of a circular city model with free entry and reference prices, in which paying market prices above a reference negatively affects the utility of consumers. Agents interact in a three-stage...

Economic regulation, including competition policy, is not an end in itself but a means to an end, and must ultimately have a positive impact on the economy as a whole. However, this positive impact needs to be broad-based or inclusive, particularly in the context of South Africa given its legacy...

Economic regulation, including competition policy, is not an end in itself but a means to an end, and must ultimately have a positive impact on the economy as a whole. However, this positive impact needs to be broad-based or inclusive, particularly in the context of South Africa given its legacy...

This paper is an empirical assessment of the comparative efficiency of governance structures in an environment marked by high uncertainty. We analyze the short-term impact of retail deregulation on the productive efficiency of electric utilities in the United States. We argue that there are...