Markets get captured. We study how. Research Center @ChicagoBooth Publication: @ProMarket_org Podcast: https://xitter.cf/t.co/tOOHdde6ud
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Joined November 2015
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A government may not need to shut down a newspaper to weaken it. It may only need to influence which news links people see.
That’s the concern raised by new research from Andrey Simonov, Daniil Mikhailov, Ruben Enikolopov, and Ruben Durante in ProMarket.
After a 2016 Russian law pushed Yandex, the country’s largest news aggregator, to narrow the outlets it recommended, independent sources’ share of its top news links fell from 20% to 10%.
#PressFreedom #TechPolicy #Economics
ms.spr.ly/6013aafYF
AI companies warn their technology could become uncontrollable and want to coordinate a slowdown.
Because agreements between competitors can violate antitrust law, they’re seeking an exemption. But that could let the biggest firms use safety rules to shut out rivals.
Two authors in @ProMarket_org think there is a solution.
promarket.org/2026/10/02/sta…
AI labs can't afford to slow down alone, and antitrust law won't let them slow down together.
An antitrust waiver would solve that, but it risks handing the biggest labs the power to decide who gets to compete. The federal government could step in to regulate, but has not shown the willingness to do so.
Writing in @ProMarket, Noah Hoffman and Fiona Scott Morton argue there's another way, and it doesn't need an act of Congress.
This would give AI companies a way to address the dangers they’re warning about while preventing safety measures from becoming a tool for shutting out competition.
promarket.org/2026/10/02/sta…
"This was the most powerful intervention effect I've ever found in 20 years of doing research."
@nyuniversity psychologist @jayvanbavel and his team paid people a few dollars to unfollow the most extreme accounts in their feeds for a month. Partisan animosity fell by 25%.
From a panel on social media and democracy at the 2026 @StiglerCenter Annual Conference. Watch the full panel below 👇
Your employer reports your pay to the government, which makes it almost impossible to cheat on your taxes even if you wanted to. For decades, the wealthiest had an escape hatch: hiding money in countries with bank secrecy laws.
In 2013, the world's major economies committed to closing it by making banks report foreigners' accounts to their home governments.
A new study in @ProMarket_org by economists Annette Alstadsæter, Niels Johannesen, Ségal Le Guern Herry, and @gabriel_zucman suggests it's having the intended effect.
promarket.org/2026/09/29/fin…
How independent is super PAC spending if the politician says he controls it?
@Harvard_Law professor @lessig uses Trump's comments to examine the gap between campaign finance rules and enforcement.
Catch the latest Capitalisn’t podcast below 👇
Stigler Center retweeted
Is the workplace a dictatorship?
University of Michigan's Elizabeth Anderson joins #Capitalisnt hosts @bethanymac12 and @zingales to discuss the extraordinary power of employers. ms.spr.ly/6016aSPM0
"We have done something to our environment that is cognitively impairing the society."
NYU psychologist @jayvanbavel from a panel on social media and democracy at the 2026 Stigler Center Annual Conference. Watch the full panel below 👇
Stigler Center retweeted
The billionaires I know disagree with each other radically. So why doesn't their political money cancel out? @lessig's answer: the damage is in the issues Congress never raises, because members know a super PAC could spend against anyone who does.
youtube.com/watch?v=_jfiFOVf…
A new study reveals BMW, Daimler, and Volkswagen colluded to bypass European emissions standards, which slashed their regulatory costs but destroyed up to €5.57 billion in social welfare in the process.
We typically think of cartels as price-fixing schemes that directly squeeze buyers. But, writing in @ProMarket_org, economist @jalechilet highlights a different dynamic.
promarket.org/2026/09/15/can…
If everyone can see exactly how money is corrupting politics but nothing changes, what has transparency accomplished?
Catch the latest Capitalisn’t podcast with @lessig, @zingales & @bethanymac12 below 👇