Issues

Competition Policy and Free Trade: Antitrust Provisions in PTAs

Why do preferential trade agreements (PTAs) include terms concerning antitrust or competition policy? Some argue that governments use competition policy to protect local firms against foreign competition. A better theory is that trade makes it hard for national authorities to enforce competition policy.

The Microsoft Antitrust Cases: Competition Policy for the Twenty-First Century

Microsoft rose to dominance in the 1980s, like IBM and Intel. Between 1990 and 2009, authorities in the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) carried out antitrust actions against Microsoft. The outcome shows that competition law is relevant to the fast-changing high-tech sector.

Does Service Bundling Reduce Churn?

This study considers whether firms that sell telecommunications services as a bundle find it easier to retain customers. The data shows that bundling does reduce “churn” for pay television, broadband, and telephone service.

Standard-Essential Patents

This paper proposes a solution to the problem of inefficient license pricing for patents included in standards.

Dynamics of Open Source Movements

This paper explores how open-source software projects evolve. Factors include gains in quality, contributing programmers, and users who offer customer support. Commercial firms compete with open source projects, and must choose how to price their product in response to open source offerings.

Why the Right to Data Portability Likely Reduces Consumer Welfare: Antitrust and Privacy Critique

This article analyzes the potential weaknesses of the European Union’s potential new right to data portability.

The First-Order Approach to Merger Analysis

This technical paper presents a new method for predicting the effects of a merger between two firms.

Competition and Innovation: Did Arrow Hit the Bull’s Eye?

This chapter discusses the relationship between competition policy and the rate of innovation by firms.

Intellectual Property Rights Policy, Competition, and Innovation

This paper shows that granting stronger intellectual property rights to technology leaders can increase innovation.

Equilibria in Health Exchanges: Adverse Selection vs. Reclassification Risk

This paper suggests that the Affordable Care Act will have a positive effect on health insurance markets.