Before it can sell a prescription drug lawfully in interstate commerce, a manufacturer must prove to the satisfaction of the Food and Drug Administration that the drug is both safe and effective. Congress approved this requirement in 1962 unanimously. Four decades of changes in the drug market...

The Internet of Things is at risk of becoming a victim of its own popularity. Today, the IoT market is generating $200 billion in revenue, a number expected to triple in the next 10 years. But a rush to market by developers of consumer IoT products and services has been accompanied by shortcuts...

The public policy approach to the Internet has become more and more complex as several markets – including fixed and mobile communications, media and content, IT – converge into one single Internet ecosystem. As in all ecosystems, zones and domains depend on each other, and there is no...

Congress is likely to consider domestic climate change legislation during 2009, with a cap-and-trade system continuing to draw support from the Obama Administration and many leaders in Congress. Yet cap-and-trade regulations would take years for EPA to develop and implement, the desired price...

Network trouble reports provide a proxy measure of service quality and network reliability. This paper analyzes the influence of local competition, state-level regulation, new technologies, automation, and mergers on RBOC reports of network trouble. Service quality discrimination between...

This paper presents the results of the Mercatus Center's Small Bank Survey, which include responses from approximately 200 banks across 41 states with less than $10 billion in assets each, serving mostly rural and small metropolitan markets. The initial analysis suggests that Dodd-Frank...

Private certification as a means of risk regulation and quality assurance offers advantages over government regulation, including superior technical expertise, better inspection and monitoring of regulated entities, increased responsiveness to consumers, and greater efficiency. This article...

Under EU Air Passenger Rights legislation (“EC261”), carriers must provide assistance and cash compensation to passengers in case of long delay. We study whether the regulation reduces flight delay. EC261 applies uniformly to flights departing from the EU, but covers only EU carriers on...

Broadband Internet Service Providers have been the subject of recent debate about the future of the Internet, with transparency being of particular concern: Are broadband ISPs (and other Internet firms) sufficiently transparent in their service offerings to customers? In this paper, I develop...

This paper considers recent proposals for restricting keyword advertising using competitor brand names. Keyword advertising is similar to many other widely used and valuable methods of marketing to the customers of rivals that increase competition and facilitate entry. Queries for products or...