LPE and COVID-19: Antitrust and Competition

Day 4 of our COVID-19 series: Antitrust and Competition.

But first! LPE approaches to antitrust: a general reading list

• The New Brandeis Movement, Lina Khan

• American Gothic: How Chicago School Economics Distorts ‘Consumer Welfare’ in Antitrust, Mark Glick

• Wealth Transfers as the Original and Primary Concern of Antitrust: The Efficiency Interpretation Challenged, Robert Lande

• Antitrust As Allocator of Coordination Rights, Sanjukta Paul

• Market Power and Inequality, Lina Khan and Sandeep Vaheesan

• Market Structure and Political Law: A Taxonomy of Power, Zephyr Techout and Lina Khan

COVID-related content:

• Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez proposed a merger moratorium for the duration of the pandemic in order to protect the American public from further consolidation and concentration of power and control during a time of crisis.

• As the Open Markets Institute argued in a letter to Congress, without a merger ban, Americans will face even greater concentration and increased economic and political inequality after the pandemic.

• Open Markets Institute also hosted a conference in conjunction with the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) on how to rebuild the international production system to ensure its resiliency and to promote more effective cooperation among the peoples of the world. The overwhelming consensus of participants was that concentration of power and capacity deeply threatens the ability of all nations to cope with crises such as COVID-19. Video here.