Recent research has focused on complex antitrust issues of stemming from corporate uses of “Big Data” and “Machine Learning” pricing algorithms. For instance, Whether could the pricing algorithms of two different companies ever could be said to be colluding with each other is just one of...

In this paper we apply a general model of one-sided and two-sided platform businesses to a collusive framework which we model as joint profit maximization. We have a particular interest in how the social loss and other metrics depend on the strength of the network (direct or indirect) effect. We...

In this paper we apply a general model of one-sided platform businesses to a duopoly competitive framework. We have a particular interest in how the option of multi-homing affects the competitive dynamic. We find that if multi-homing is precluded, the incumbent platform is always able to...

Measures have recently been proposed to restrict trading in crude oil and gasoline. This proposal is based on the presumption that market speculators are artificially raising the prices of these products; in other words, that the market is being manipulated. In this short note I will review the...

In this paper we model cartel duration as a mixed proportional hazard model and condition on cartel characteristics such as the agency first detecting the cartel, industry, if it is a bid rigging or price fixing cartel, the number of countries affected, the affected sales, and measures of the...

Despite the successes of cartel detection over the last twenty years, there are many who believe that competition authorities have just started to scratch the surface. The focus of this note is to make the case that proactive detection and deterrence policies need to be established, and that...

What is the purpose of financial sector regulation? What problem are we trying to solve? We are not (or should not be) trying to eliminate risk from the market. There is an "optimal level of risk," and surely it is not zero. That means that there could exist inefficiently high levels of risk,...

In this paper I review the key aspects of the new anti-manipulation and anti-fraud rules of the U.S. Commodities and Futures Trading Commission implemented last summer, representing a significant expansion of the Commission's enforcement authority. I argue that the role of the economist may...