Economists at the Federal Trade Commission pursue the agency’s competition and consumer protection missions. In this year’s essay, with respect to antitrust we discuss the analysis that is used in two areas where the Commission has recently been active: physician combinations and standard...

This paper uses a strategic trade policy model to analyze the welfare effects from allowing cooperation in R&D when firms compete in a price-setting game in the product market. A policy game between two governments is analyzed, where each government chooses a particular cooperative R&D policy in...

Western Australia is the largest and most sparsely populated state in Australia with all its specialised psychiatric inpatient facilities in Perth, the capital city. This study tested a number of hypotheses concerning the effect of distance from Perth, firstly, on total hospitalisation rates for...

Buildings and other engineered structures that form cities are responsible for a significant portion of the global and local impacts of climate change. Consequently, the incorporation of building design strategies and materials such as the use of reflective roof materials, or 'cool' roofs, are...

This paper formally examines the factors underlying how responsive imports must be to domestic prices (the ‘import supply elasticity’) in order to thwart an anticompetitive domestic price increase stemming from a merger – an issue that frequently arises in many antitrust reviews. Domestic...

This paper formally examines the factors underlying how responsive imports must be to domestic prices (the ‘import supply elasticity’) in order to thwart an anticompetitive domestic price increase stemming from a merger––an issue that frequently arises in many antitrust reviews. Domestic...

The impact that competition exerts on the incentives of firms to pass through reductions in their marginal costs is an important consideration in assessing the performance of alternate market structures. This paper examines the role of product differentiation on firm-specific and industry-wide...

Innovation in European Cities sets out the context for Bloomberg Philanthropies’ European Mayors Challenge. It gives an overview of the key themes facing European cities today and provides an independent analysis of the 155 submissions to the award and a detailed review of the five winning...