Download or read book Challenges to the Conventional Wisdom About Mergers and Consumer Welfare in a Converging Internet Marketplace written by Rob Frieden and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper identifies substantial flaws in how U.S. government agencies and courts assess the impact of proposed mergers by firms using broadband networks to reach consumers. Based on current market definitions, consumer impact assessments and economic doctrine, antitrust enforcement agencies may fail to identify the risk of harm to consumers and competition, a so-called false negative. In recent years, the Department of Justice, Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission, individually and collectively, have assessed the competitive consequences of numerous multi-billion dollar acquisitions and have conditionally approved almost all of them. These agencies appear predisposed to favor deals that involve vertical integration between market segments, based on assumptions that short term consumer welfare gains exceed any potential competitive harms. The paper concludes that reviewing government agencies appear too willing to extend current assumptions about how “bricks and mortar” markets work to transactions occurring via broadband networks. By “fighting the last war,” these agencies fail to identify new risks to consumer welfare, particularly by ventures operating in multiple markets that do not readily fit into the conventional assessment of mutually exclusive vertical and horizontal “food chains.” In a broadband ecosystem where both technologies and markets converge, ventures can appear to offer consumers an incredible value proposition. Like economists' determination that there is no such thing as a free lunch, a better calibrated, multi-dimensional analysis would identify significant offsetting harms to “free” Internet services like that offered by Facebook and Google. The paper concludes that recent and future acquisitions of broadband ventures have a much greater likelihood of generating legitimate concerns about competitive and consumer harms, particularly as markets become ever more concentrated, often dominated by a single firm. The paper does not recommend a repudiation of Chicago School antitrust doctrine, but recommends that reviewing agencies and courts calibrate empirical measures of prospective costs and benefits to consumers from a proposed merger by identifying short term and longer-term impacts on core and adjacent markets.
Download or read book The Case for the Digital Platform Act written by Harold Feld and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2019-10-04 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Case for the Digital Platform Act" is a new book from Harold Feld, Senior Vice President of Public Knowledge and longtime communications industry advocate, in collaboration with Public Knowledge and the Roosevelt Institute. This book aims to guide policymakers on what government can do to preserve competition and empower individual users in the huge swath of our economy now referred to as "Big Tech." Many Americans now wonder how they can reassert control over their lives after ceding so many decisions about our economy and our public discourse to private actors like Facebook, Google, and Amazon. But as Feld points out, we have faced similar challenges from new technologies before. Looking at more than a century of disruptive communications technologies from the telegraph to television to Twitter, Feld picks out patterns of what approaches have worked (and what hasn't) to promote competition, empower consumers and protect democracy. "The Case for the Digital Platform Act" provides a deep dive for policymakers on everything from specific recommendations on how to promote competition to a "First Amendment checklist" for content moderation, while remaining accessible to the general reader looking to participate in the debate over our digital future. Feld explains the need for a "Digital Platform Act" and for an agency specifically charged to regulate digital platforms on an ongoing basis. He proposes a new method of assessing a platform's dominance for purposes of new regulation. He also addresses questions around content moderation rights and responsibilities for companies that have found themselves policing the new public square, all while preserving the best things about digital platforms for their users. Praise for "The Case for the Digital Platform Act": "[...] a tour de force of the issues raised by the digital economy and internet capitalism. Whether you agree or disagree with Harold, these thoughts will stretch your intellect and stimulate your thinking." -Tom Wheeler, Former Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Visiting Fellow at The Brooking Institution "You'd be shortchanging yourself by not reading the book of such a principled advocate." -Hal Singer, Managing Director at Econ One Research, Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, Senior Fellow at George Washington's Institute of Public Policy "I'd bet you can't listen to Harold Feld talk about the Digital Platform Act and not think we need it as law right now. I'm glad Harold Feld and Public Knowledge are making the case for government to do the job Silicon Valley won't." -Chris Savage, Eclectablog
Download or read book In Defense of Monopoly written by Richard B. McKenzie and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2019-02-28 with total page 554 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Defense of Monopoly offers an unconventional but empirically grounded argument in favor of market monopolies. Authors McKenzie and Lee claim that conventional, static models exaggerate the harm done by real-world monopolies, and they show why some degree of monopoly presence is necessary to maximize the improvement of human welfare over time. Inspired by Joseph Schumpeter's suggestion that market imperfections can drive an economy's long-term progress, In Defense of Monopoly defies conventional assumptions to show readers why an economic system's failure to efficiently allocate its resources is actually a necessary precondition for maximizing the system's long-term performance: the perfectly fluid, competitive economy idealized by most economists is decidedly inferior to one characterized by market entry and exit restrictions or costs. An economy is not a board game in which players compete for a limited number of properties, nor is it much like the kind of blackboard games that economists use to develop their monopoly models. As McKenzie and Lee demonstrate, the creation of goods and services in the real world requires not only competition but the prospect of gains beyond a normal competitive rate of return.
Download or read book Media Freedom and Pluralism written by Beata Klimkiewicz and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2010-05-10 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Addresses a critical analysis of major media policies in the European Union and Council of Europe at the period of profound changes affecting both media environments and use, as well as the logic of media policy-making and reconfiguration of traditional regulatory models. The analytical problem-related approach seems to better reflect a media policy process as an interrelated part of European integration, formation of European citizenship, and exercise of communication rights within the European communicative space. The question of normative expectations is to be compared in this case with media policy rationales, mechanisms of implementation (transposing rules from EU to national levels), and outcomes.
Download or read book The Economic Assessment of Mergers Under European Competition Law written by Daniel Gore and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-04-25 with total page 559 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides a clear, concise and practical overview of the key economic techniques and evidence employed in European merger control.
Download or read book Varieties of Capitalism written by Peter A. Hall and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 557 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Applying the new economics of organisation and relational theories of the firm to the problem of understanding cross-national variation in the political economy, this volume elaborates a new understanding of the institutional differences that characterise the 'varieties of capitalism' worldwide.
Download or read book Cognitive Hyperconnected Digital Transformation written by Ovidiu Vermesan and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2022-09-01 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cognitive Hyperconnected Digital Transformation provides an overview of the current Internet of Things (IoT) landscape, ranging from research, innovation and development priorities to enabling technologies in a global context. It is intended as a standalone book in a series that covers the Internet of Things activities of the IERC-Internet of Things European Research Cluster, including both research and technological innovation, validation and deployment. The book builds on the ideas put forward by the European Research Cluster, the IoT European Platform Initiative (IoT-EPI) and the IoT European Large-Scale Pilots Programme, presenting global views and state-of-the-art results regarding the challenges facing IoT research, innovation, development and deployment in the next years. Hyperconnected environments integrating industrial/business/consumer IoT technologies and applications require new IoT open systems architectures integrated with network architecture (a knowledge-centric network for IoT), IoT system design and open, horizontal and interoperable platforms managing things that are digital, automated and connected and that function in real-time with remote access and control based on Internet-enabled tools. The IoT is bridging the physical world with the virtual world by combining augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to support the physical-digital integrations in the Internet of mobile things based on sensors/actuators, communication, analytics technologies, cyber-physical systems, software, cognitive systems and IoT platforms with multiple functionalities. These IoT systems have the potential to understand, learn, predict, adapt and operate autonomously. They can change future behaviour, while the combination of extensive parallel processing power, advanced algorithms and data sets feed the cognitive algorithms that allow the IoT systems to develop new services and propose new solutions. IoT technologies are moving into the industrial space and enhancing traditional industrial platforms with solutions that break free of device-, operating system- and protocol-dependency. Secure edge computing solutions replace local networks, web services replace software, and devices with networked programmable logic controllers (NPLCs) based on Internet protocols replace devices that use proprietary protocols. Information captured by edge devices on the factory floor is secure and accessible from any location in real time, opening the communication gateway both vertically (connecting machines across the factory and enabling the instant availability of data to stakeholders within operational silos) and horizontally (with one framework for the entire supply chain, across departments, business units, global factory locations and other markets). End-to-end security and privacy solutions in IoT space require agile, context-aware and scalable components with mechanisms that are both fluid and adaptive. The convergence of IT (information technology) and OT (operational technology) makes security and privacy by default a new important element where security is addressed at the architecture level, across applications and domains, using multi-layered distributed security measures. Blockchain is transforming industry operating models by adding trust to untrusted environments, providing distributed security mechanisms and transparent access to the information in the chain. Digital technology platforms are evolving, with IoT platforms integrating complex information systems, customer experience, analytics and intelligence to enable new capabilities and business models for digital business.
Download or read book The Competitive Advantage of Nations written by Michael E. Porter and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Reforming Infrastructure written by Ioannis Nicolaos Kessides and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2004 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Electricity, natural gas, telecommunications, railways, and water supply, are often vertically and horizontally integrated state monopolies. This results in weak services, especially in developing and transition economies, and for poor people. Common problems include low productivity, high costs, bad quality, insufficient revenue, and investment shortfalls. Many countries over the past two decades have restructured, privatized and regulated their infrastructure. This report identifies the challenges involved in this massive policy redirection. It also assesses the outcomes of these changes, as well as their distributional consequences for poor households and other disadvantaged groups. It recommends directions for future reforms and research to improve infrastructure performance, identifying pricing policies that strike a balance between economic efficiency and social equity, suggesting rules governing access to bottleneck infrastructure facilities, and proposing ways to increase poor people's access to these crucial services.
Download or read book Quantitative Techniques for Competition and Antitrust Analysis written by Peter Davis and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-11-16 with total page 1185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book combines practical guidance and theoretical background for analysts using empirical techniques in competition and antitrust investigations. Peter Davis and Eliana Garcés show how to integrate empirical methods, economic theory, and broad evidence about industry in order to provide high-quality, robust empirical work that is tailored to the nature and quality of data available and that can withstand expert and judicial scrutiny. Davis and Garcés describe the toolbox of empirical techniques currently available, explain how to establish the weight of pieces of empirical work, and make some new theoretical contributions. The book consistently evaluates empirical techniques in light of the challenge faced by competition analysts and academics--to provide evidence that can stand up to the review of experts and judges. The book's integrated approach will help analysts clarify the assumptions underlying pieces of empirical work, evaluate those assumptions in light of industry knowledge, and guide future work aimed at understanding whether the assumptions are valid. Throughout, Davis and Garcés work to expand the common ground between practitioners and academics.
Download or read book The Digital Person written by Daniel J Solove and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Daniel Solove presents a startling revelation of how digital dossiers are created, usually without the knowledge of the subject, & argues that we must rethink our understanding of what privacy is & what it means in the digital age before addressing the need to reform the laws that regulate it.
Download or read book Competition Policy written by Massimo Motta and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004-01-12 with total page 650 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book to provide a systematic treatment of the economics of antitrust (or competition policy) in a global context. It draws on the literature of industrial organisation and on original analyses to deal with such important issues as cartels, joint-ventures, mergers, vertical contracts, predatory pricing, exclusionary practices, and price discrimination, and to formulate policy implications on these issues. The interaction between theory and practice is one of the main features of the book, which contains frequent references to competition policy cases and a few fully developed case studies. The treatment is written to appeal to practitioners and students, to lawyers and economists. It is not only a textbook in economics for first year graduate or advanced undergraduate courses, but also a book for all those who wish to understand competition issues in a clear and rigorous way. Exercises and some solved problems are provided.
Download or read book The Globalization Paradox written by Dani Rodrik and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2012-05-17 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For a century, economists have driven forward the cause of globalization in financial institutions, labour markets, and trade. Yet there have been consistent warning signs that a global economy and free trade might not always be advantageous. Where are the pressure points? What could be done about them? Dani Rodrik examines the back-story from its seventeenth-century origins through the milestones of the gold standard, the Bretton Woods Agreement, and the Washington Consensus, to the present day. Although economic globalization has enabled unprecedented levels of prosperity in advanced countries and has been a boon to hundreds of millions of poor workers in China and elsewhere in Asia, it is a concept that rests on shaky pillars, he contends. Its long-term sustainability is not a given. The heart of Rodrik’s argument is a fundamental 'trilemma': that we cannot simultaneously pursue democracy, national self-determination, and economic globalization. Give too much power to governments, and you have protectionism. Give markets too much freedom, and you have an unstable world economy with little social and political support from those it is supposed to help. Rodrik argues for smart globalization, not maximum globalization.
Download or read book Convergence in Information and Communication Technology written by Rajendra Singh and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2010-02-23 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Growth in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector has exploded over the past 20 years. Continuous dynamic market and technology developments in this sector have led to a phenomenon known as convergence, which is defined in this volume as the erosion of boundaries between previously separate ICT services, networks, and business practices. Some examples include cable television networks that offer phone service, Internet television, and mergers between media and telecommunications firms. The results are exciting and hold significant promise for developing countries, which can benefit from expanded access, greater competition, and increased investments. However, convergence in ICT is challenging traditional policy and regulatory frameworks. With convergence occurring in countries across the spectrum of economic development, it is critical that policy makers and regulators understand and respond in ways that maximize the benefits while mitigating the risks. This volume analyzes the strategic and regulatory dimensions of convergence. It offers policy makers and regulators examples from countries around the world as they address this phenomenon. The authors suggest that countries that enable convergence are likely to reap the greater rewards, but the precise nature of the response will vary by country. Hence, this book offers global principles that should be tailored to local circumstances as regulatory frameworks evolve to address convergence.
Download or read book The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report written by Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission and published by Cosimo, Inc.. This book was released on 2011-05-01 with total page 692 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, published by the U.S. Government and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in early 2011, is the official government report on the United States financial collapse and the review of major financial institutions that bankrupted and failed, or would have without help from the government. The commission and the report were implemented after Congress passed an act in 2009 to review and prevent fraudulent activity. The report details, among other things, the periods before, during, and after the crisis, what led up to it, and analyses of subprime mortgage lending, credit expansion and banking policies, the collapse of companies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the federal bailouts of Lehman and AIG. It also discusses the aftermath of the fallout and our current state. This report should be of interest to anyone concerned about the financial situation in the U.S. and around the world.THE FINANCIAL CRISIS INQUIRY COMMISSION is an independent, bi-partisan, government-appointed panel of 10 people that was created to "examine the causes, domestic and global, of the current financial and economic crisis in the United States." It was established as part of the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009. The commission consisted of private citizens with expertise in economics and finance, banking, housing, market regulation, and consumer protection. They examined and reported on "the collapse of major financial institutions that failed or would have failed if not for exceptional assistance from the government."News Dissector DANNY SCHECHTER is a journalist, blogger and filmmaker. He has been reporting on economic crises since the 1980's when he was with ABC News. His film In Debt We Trust warned of the economic meltdown in 2006. He has since written three books on the subject including Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity (Cosimo Books, 2008), and The Crime Of Our Time: Why Wall Street Is Not Too Big to Jail (Disinfo Books, 2011), a companion to his latest film Plunder The Crime Of Our Time. He can be reached online at www.newsdissector.com.
Download or read book Competition Law for the Digital Economy written by Björn Lundqvist and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2019-12-27 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The digital economy is gradually gaining traction through a variety of recent technological developments, including the introduction of the Internet of things, artificial intelligence and markets for data. This innovative book contains contributions from leading competition law scholars who map out and investigate the anti-competitive effects that are developing in the digital economy.
Download or read book Government Failure Versus Market Failure written by Clifford Winston and published by Brookings Institution Press and AEI. This book was released on 2006 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When should government intervene in market activity? When is it best to let market forces simply take their natural course? How does existing empirical evidence about government performance inform those decisions? Brookings economist Clifford Winston uses these questions to frame a frank empirical assessment of government economic intervention in Government Failure vs.
