2020 Antitrust and Competition Conference - Monopolies and Politics

About the Conference

In 2017, the Stigler Center embarked on an ambitious project to reinvigorate the discussion of concentration and monopoly in the United States, culminating in the conference Is There a Concentration Problem in America? In 2018, the Center brought together scholars and experts to consider digital platforms specifically. From the 2018 conference a consensus emerged that the issues raised by these platforms must be addressed, and—to provide independent expertise on potential policy responses—the Center formed a Committee for the Study of Digital Platforms and organized its 2019 conference on Digital Platforms, Markets and Democracy: A Path Forward.

While there has been progress in studying the political impact of social media and digital platform concentration, political considerations have become increasingly relevant also in the wider study of market concentration. Yet the relationship between market concentration and undesirable political outcomes remains unclear and should be further analyzed.

Thus, the first goal of the conference is to explore whether these links exist and what form they take. Second, U.S. antitrust was born also to restrain the excessive concentration of political power. Over the years, this goal has been eliminated from the antitrust practice. Should we now create a separate political antitrust? If so, how could it be administered to avoid arbitrariness? To explore these topics, the Stigler Center is dedicating its fourth annual antitrust and competition conference to Monopolies and Politics.

**In accordance with University guidance on COVID-19 and for the safety of our community, and in the spirit of continuing to promote and disseminate research, we will be holding the conference virtually in a series of free webinars from Spring 2020 - Winter 2021.**

Winter 2021 Webinars 

• January 14, 2021: Keynote: Paul Romer on Why Traditional Antitrust Falls Short with Paul Romer and Luigi Zingales
• January 28, 2021: Should Antitrust Promote Political Liberty? with Francis Fukuyama, Nolan McCarty, Zephyr Teachout, and Leah Nylen
• February 4, 2021: Is There a Problem with Competition? with Dennis Carlton, Ariel Ezrachi, Maurice Stucke, and Jana Kasperkevic
• February 11, 2021: Market Power and Money in Politics: An Assessment with Fiona Scott Morton, Tommaso Valletti, and Filippo Lancieri
• February 18, 2021: Can Antitrust Tackle the Political Power of Economic Conglomerates? with Ido Baum, Sally Hubbard, Didi Lachman Messer, and Filippo Lancieri
• February 25, 2021: Does Market Power Lead to Political Power? with Sarah Miller, David Moss, James Robinson, and Luigi Zingales

Fall 2020 Webinars

• Should Antitrust Promote Economic Liberty? with Cristina Caffarra, William Kovacic, Barry Lynn, and Jacob Schlesinger

Spring 2020 Webinars

• Anti-Monopoly Pressure Groups in the United States: Past, Present, and Future with Mehrsa Baradaran, Eli Cook, and Luigi Zingales
• Latin America: Monopolies, Dictatorships and Populism with Aldo Musacchio, Ben Ross Schneider, and Filippo Lancieri
• The United States: An Exceptional Case? with Stephen Haber, Richard John, and Luigi Zingales
• Regulating Conglomerates: From Imperial Japan to Modern Israel with Yishay Yafeh and Stefano Feltri
• Monopolies and the Rise of Nazism in Germany with Daniel Crane, Liza Lovdahl Gormsen, and Filippo Lancieri
• Industrial Policy, Economic Concentration, and Governmental Capture: The Korean Case with Sangin Park and Guy Rolnik

Conference Organizers

• Luigi Zingales, Robert C. McCormack Distinguished Service Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance & Charles M. Harper Faculty Fellow, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
• Guy Rolnik, Clinical Professor of Strategic Management, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
• Filippo Lancieri, JSD Candidate, University of Chicago Law School; Research Fellow, Stigler Center, University of Chicago Booth School of Business

For more information, contact:

Sebastian Burca, Associate Director, Stigler Center
773.834.2054
sebastian.burca@chicagobooth.edu