But in practice, location remains central to competition. But when corporations use their market power to shape the policy and regulatory environment in ways that crush competition, problems arise. When enforced, these agreements inhibit a worker’s ability to switch jobs and constrain the ability of new firms to hire talent. The notion was to spur competition and lower prices, discouraging the practice of some audiologists of bundling an exam with the purchase of a hearing aid. Porter explains how clusters affect competition in three broad ways: first, by increasing the productivity of companies based in the area; second, by driving the direction and pace of innovation; and third, by stimulating the formation of new businesses within the cluster. This course offers an introduction to the market system, emphasizing economic interactions among individuals, business firms, and government. Of the 893 industries it examined — from dog food and battery makers to airlines and credit cards — two-thirds had grown more concentrated since 2007. Because Synergy didn’t do business in the United States at the time, the FTC argued, a merger would preclude any competition that might result from Synergy’s eventual entrance into the U.S. market. Geographic, cultural, and institutional proximity provides companies with special access, closer relationships, better information, powerful incentives, and other advantages that are difficult to tap from a distance. The explosion of state occupational licensing rules also harms both workers and new entrants. That’s more worrisome, Haltiwanger says, because it portends slower productivity growth. Below is a list of in-print works in this collection, presented in series order or publication order as applicable. This is a start, but regulators and policymakers have more work to do. And regulators need to pay more attention to protecting economic vitality and consumer well-being — and less to industry lobbyists. In theory, location should no longer be a source of competitive advantage. And they cite anecdotal evidence undermining the notion that institutional holders are reluctant activists: For example, in the 2017 showdown between Procter & Gamble and activist Nelson Peltz, Vanguard sided with P&G, while State Street and BlackRock voted almost all their shares for Peltz. Policymakers also need to scrutinize regulations that restrict competition across the economy. Schmalz and his colleagues don’t allege explicit collusion; rather, they claim that common ownership reduces the incentive to compete. “Concentration could arise from anticompetitive forces,” Autor and his colleagues note, “whereby dominant firms are increasingly able to prevent actual and potential rivals from entering and expanding.” Indeed, research shows that incumbent firms in a wide range of industries — airlines, beer, pharmaceuticals, hospitals — are wielding market power in ways that prevent rivals from emerging and thriving. After the merger fell through, some argued that T-Mobile was doomed. Measured against GDP, corporate after-tax profits are almost double what they were 25 years ago — and higher than at any time since World War II — yet business investment as a share of GDP is up only 13% over the same period. Gabriel received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 2013. In a 2002 study, Lawrence White, a New York University economist, concluded that economy-wide concentration had fallen from the beginning of the 1980s to the end of the 1990s. The worrisome aspects of increasing industry consolidation can’t be addressed solely through antitrust enforcement. And with bipartisan enthusiasm and the blessing of the Food and Drug Administration, Congress in 2017 instructed the FDA to make it easier for consumers to buy hearing aids at Costco and other retailers, just as they can buy reading glasses at nonspecialty stores such as CVS. ** Read the Fall 2020 DUS Letter from our Director of Undergraduate Studies, Prof. Jeffrey Miron. The research on whether common ownership harms competition may be inconclusive, but the work is increasingly vital as the stakes in major companies held by large institutional investors continue to rise dramatically. Louisiana requires florists to be licensed. Recent research pins rising beer prices to greater concentration in the industry. I study the economics of competition and other topics in industrial organization using a combination of theory and data. How does this rise in cross-ownership by institutional investors affect competition? Such regulatory restraints on competition are coming under increasing scrutiny. We’ll never know what TBH or Halli Labs or Orbitera or Instagram or WhatsApp or Oculus VR might have become had Facebook not absorbed them — or what companies might have been started had prospective founders not figured that it would be impossible to compete with Facebook. Health care is another stark example. CAMBRIDGE, MA – The Harvard Environmental Economics Program has, for the eleventh consecutive year, awarded three prizes to Harvard University students for the best research papers addressing a topic in environmental, energy, or natural-resource economics – one prize each for an undergraduate paper or senior thesis, master’s student paper, and doctoral student paper. In 2015, for instance, the Federal Trade Commission considered whether the merger of real estate sites Zillow and Trulia would reduce both companies’ incentives to develop new features for consumers. Enquiries on the LSE SU Economics Essay Competition should be sent to economics@lsesu.org. It is time for antitrust authorities to renew their scrutiny of traditional.. And fun team learning experience begins with competitions at the John F. Kennedy School of government and Harvard Publishing! Many students in these programs have considerable overlap in their coursework with courses offered to students. 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