Digital Data,Platforms and the Usual [Antitrust] Suspects: Network Effects,Switching Costs,Essential Facility

This paper asks whether the large amounts of digital data that are typically observed on large technology platforms—such as Google, Facebook, Uber and Amazon—typically give rise to structural conditions that would lead to antitrust concerns. In particular, I evaluate whether digital data augments or decreases concerns with regard to network effects and switching costs. I also evaluate whether data should be thought of as an ‘essential facility’.

     

The NCAA Cartel and Antitrust Policy

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) was originally founded to protect student athletes from the brutality of college football. The NCAA has established a number of prominent athletic programs and achieved huge commercial success. In spite of this success, the NCAA has limited the compensation of student-athletes through collusive monopsonistic restraints. Ordinarily, these restraints would be vulnerable to antitrust attack, but the NCAA has enjoyed benign neglect by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. The root of this is the Board of Regents [National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, 468 U.S. 85 (1984)] decision, which requires rule-of-reason treatment of the NCAA’s restraints. The essential role of amateurism of student athletes is used to justify the NCAA’s cartel behavior. In this paper, we demonstrate that amateurism is a myth. We suggest that the NCAA will be unable to provide an evidentiary foundation for its claim that amateurism is crucial to the success of college athletic programs. In addition, we reject the possibility of an efficiency defense for the NCAA’s cartel behavior.     

Attention Platforms,the Value of Content,and Public Policy

This paper shows that two related aspects of attention platforms are important for the sound economic analysis of public policy including antitrust: first, attention platforms generate valuable content. Even though people often don’t pay for content, we know from revealed preference that content is valuable because people spend a considerable amount of time—which has an opportunity cost—consuming it. Second, demand for advertising and the supply of content are interdependent. A decrease in the demand for advertising reduces the returns to supplying content and therefore the amount of content that is provided. Accounting for the value of content and these positive feedbacks cannot determine optimal interventions; but failing to do so can result in policies that reduce consumer—as well as advertiser—welfare. The paper then considers the implications of these considerations for public policy: particularly privacy regulation and antitrust enforcement. From the standpoint of promoting consumer welfare, the failure to account for the value of content and the ad-content interdependencies increases the chances that authorities do not intervene when they should and do intervene when they should not.

     

Delusions Regarding the Proper Role of Markets and Antitrust Policy

William Curran and Donald Wellington have criticized capitalism,neoclassical economics and antitrust policy. This article defendscapitalistic institutions against both the strong forms ofsocialism as practiced in the former Soviet Union and againstits milder forms as practiced in the welfare states of Europe.The article endorses some of Curran's and Wellington's concernsabout neoclassical economics, but recommends that neoclassicaleconomics be adapted to make it more useful for scientificresearch rather than abandoned outright. Some suggestions areoffered in this direction. The article totally rejects the notionthat antitrust policy can be a tool for correcting the ills ofcapitalism as Curran and Wellington see them, and argues that thegoal of antitrust policy should be to improve capitalism not todestroy it.     

Antitrust,the Rule of Reason,and Democracy

Professor Barnes responds to William Curran's fictional dialogue between Senator John Sherman and philosopher John Rawls, with a fictional letter from Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. Professor Barnes discusses the importance of the anarcho-socialist movement of the late nineteenth century to the adoption of the Sherman Act, the historical and logical inevitability of adoption of a rule of reason in antitrust law, the relevance of efficiency to the rule of reason, and the relationship between competition and the promotion of democratic ideals.     

Antitrust Sanctions and a Firm's Ability to Pay

Review of Industrial Organization - Gallo et al. (1994) analyze the sanctions imposed on firms convicted of criminal price-fixing under the antitrust laws. An element not included explicitly in...     

Markets,Morals, or Wealth? Delusions of a Standardized Antitrust Value

Since the 1980s, courts have chosen corporate wealth generation as antitrust's sole value, justifying their choice under``Chicago School' economics, while abandoning counter-values like justice and democracy. The difficult consequences of``Chicago's' univocal corporate wealth generating ``value' are explored in this article, while a broader, multi-valued, antitrust alternative is discussed and proposed.     

Serving the poor: Multisided mobile service platforms,openness, competition,collaboration and the struggle for leadership

Four billion people at the base of the economic pyramid live on incomes below $3000 a year in local purchasing power, and more often than not, lack consistent access to services, such as water, healthcare, banking or agricultural know-how. Rapid advances in mobile technology offer the potential to mediate access to essential services. Through this research, the answers to the following question were explored: will mobile service platforms bridge the gap between service providers and people living at the base of the pyramid in developing countries? Anchored in interviews with 31 experts in the field of mobile and ICT, qualitative analysis starting from platform leadership to explain the role of mobile service platforms is presented: how operator, device and service provider centric platforms compete, collaborate and open up (or not) for delivering scalable services to the poor. Based on the analysis in this paper, it is portended that although operator centric platforms are in pole position, device centric platform providers, being astute innovators, are positioned to close the lead by presenting alternatives to bridge the gap in developing countries. This paper frames the current debate on M4D through the lens of platform theory, and aims to provide guidance to policy makers to improve access to services for the poor.     

Introduction: Antitrust and Regulatory Update

Review of Industrial Organization -     

Introduction: Antitrust and Regulatory Update

Review of Industrial Organization -     

Platforms,systems competition,and innovation: Reassessing the foundations of communications policy

Focusing on the effects of policy on investment and innovation this paper examines whether the conceptual foundations of sector regulation are aligned with the current technological and economic conditions of advanced communications. One conclusion is that the prevailing theories and practices are only adequate if the policy challenge can be reasonably approximated as a static or steady-state problem but they may have serious shortcomings if this is not possible. The article proceeds with a review and critical examination of two approaches that could augment or possibly replace the traditional approach under conditions of dynamic competition—the theory of platform markets and systems approaches. Both frameworks model aspects of competition in interconnected systems in more detail and offer novel insights to inform communications policy in an era of continuous change. Nonetheless, important theoretical and implementation gaps remain that will require additional efforts by researchers and practitioners.     

大数据时代纺织企业的财务会计和管理会计的融合

大数据时代的到来,使得会计信息采集、存储、整合与披露的环境也发生了重大的转变;现代信息技术对管理会计与财务会计的融合起到了巨大的推动作用.传统的纺织企业也应与时俱进,在管理中采用财务会计和管理会计协同发展的模式.本文以大数据时代作为背景基础,将我国纺织企业作为研究对象,分析了财务会计和管理会计融合过程中可能存在的挑战,...     

大纸板箱的发展前景

Bert－ Co Graphics公司采用独具创造性的方式进行高分辨率的、高质量的包装生产。作为一家单张纸胶印包装印刷企业，该公司的可折叠纸板箱屡次获奖，并多次受到国家纸盒协会、卡纸包装协会等的表彰。 　　Bert－ Co公司起步于铅字印刷。 1930年， Berton在洛杉矶发现这一公司，并开始火柴盒封面印刷和其他小产品印刷。 60年代，该公司全面转向硬纸板胶印印刷。在接下来的 10年中， Bert－ Co公司为唱片公司提供印刷业务 ,创造了色彩生动的海报、流动海报、波纹陈列品等，以及一些唱片公司的唱片套。 　　当唱片的消失无法避免的时候 , …     

小标签大市场——祝贺2006第七届中国国际标签展开幕

改革开放以来，特别是近10年间，我国标签市场发展很快，蒸蒸日上，欣欣向荣。“小标签，大市场”的格局已经成为我国包装行业的一道亮丽风景线。     

Economics at the FTC: Data Intensive Mergers and Policy R&D

Economics at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) supports both the competition and consumer protection missions of the agency. In this year’s essay we discuss a range of activities focusing on data-intensive antitrust cases in the hospital and consumer products industries. We also discuss our most recent work on gasoline pricing. Policy-focused research and competition advocacy takes center stage as we discuss some health care advocacy work in the administration of pharmaceutical insurance benefits and efforts to understand the real estate business more completely. Finally, we describe our efforts to quantify the extent of “identity theft”.