Economics

Another Court Dismisses Price Fixing, Price Gouging Claims Against Martha’s Vineyard Gasoline Retailers

Michael Giberson The Martha’s Vineyard Times: A panel of judges sitting in the federal First Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court ruling that gasoline prices on Martha’s Vineyard have not been illegally inflated by a conspiracy among retailers, according to a report by “The Docket,” the news blog of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. …

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Another Comment on United States V. Keyspan Corporation

Michael Giberson “By the Justice Department’s calculations, Keyspan’s anti-competitive actions resulted in it receiving almost $49 million. The settlement submitted by the Justice Department would let Keyspan keep $37 million from its anti-competitive actions. Netting $37 million for anti-competitive conduct is not a penalty, it is not a deterrent, it is a reward.” “Anything short …

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John List’s $10 Million Crazy Idea Field Experiment in Education

Michael Giberson Bloomberg Markets Magazine has a feature on economist John List and his $10 million research project on education. Along the way we get an introduction to List’s work on field experiments in economics, a splash of lab-based economics back story, and the reaction of education specialists who think List’s project is wholly off …

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Effects of Anti-price Gouging Legislation on Supply Chain Dynamics

Michael Giberson Jason Maynard has produced a thesis examining “The Effects of Anti-Price Gouging Legislation on Supply Chain Dynamics“: Abstract: The purpose of this thesis is to model the effects of anti-price gouging (APG) legislation on the costs to businesses during the recovery period of a disaster. A system dynamics model of a business’s replenishment …

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If Truth is What Your Freshmen Students Let You Get Away With, Then…

Michael Giberson What do we owe the status quo? Uwe Reinhardt, Economix, asks “How convincing is the case for free trade?” In his column, Reinhardt takes note of a few discussions of free trade without taking a stand himself. But he ends with a provocative quote from Alan Blinder: “If we economists stubbornly insist on chanting ‘free trade …

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Demsetz Discusses Coase’s Mistake on Pigou and Social Costs

Michael Giberson Last summer, Harold Demsetz spoke at the Property and Environment Research Center on Ronald Coase’s big mistake in “The Problem of Social Cost.” PERC has just posted the video. The article he is presenting is, “Fallacies in the Economic Doctrine of Externalities,” but I bet in the written article he doesn’t say, “what …

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Fair Trade for Coffee May Be Good, But…

Michael Giberson Fair trade for coffee is good, but many readily available alternatives may be better. “Better” as in, better for the producer and better for consumers. I was browsing the website of a local specialty coffee roaster, and noticed the “Ethics” labels on the products: “Premium price” and “Farm Gate”, but not “Fair Trade.” …

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An Experimental Test of Automated Market Power Mitigation Finds the Procedures Work

Michael Giberson The new International Journal of Industrial Organization is a special issue devoted to experimental analysis. Among the articles is research into automated market power mitigation procedures similar to the rules employed in the New York Independent System Operator. In brief, the authors find that automated conduct- and impact-based screening of offers succeeded in …

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Gmu Economists Conflict on Hayek and the Discovery of Efficient Laws, I Think

Michael Giberson Two recent papers by George Mason University economists* appear to conflict on the question of whether competition in the legal arena should be expected to yield more efficient laws. I say “appear to conflict” because I have only just glanced through both papers and they both appear rich, dense, and worthy of careful …

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