Economics at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) covers both the antitrust and consumer protection missions. In this year’s essay, we focus mainly on the competition-side of the agency. Drawing on a wealth of recent research, we provide descriptive and analytical information about the petroleum...

Individual Federal Trade Commission (FTC) cases invariably raise broad questions about consumers, markets, and effective enforcement policy. Recent consumer protection cases raise questions about information regulation. Horizontal merger enforcement has recently focused on retrospective analysis...

Studies of gasoline prices in multiple countries have found sequences of a sharp price increase followed by gradual decreases. This pattern is linked to Maskin and Tirole (Econometrica 56:571–599, <CitationRef CitationID="CR4">1988</CitationRef>) duopoly pricing game and labeled Edgeworth price cycles. We examine data on average daily...</citationref>