Marshall Steinbaum 🔥 (@Econ_Marshall): Some very revealing stuff in @jasonfurman's Ec 10 undergraduate lecture at Harvard, discussed in this thread: https://twitter.com/jasonfurman/status/1526203595372351488 /1
Marshall Steinbaum 🔥 (@Econ_Marshall): @jasonfurman 1. Price-HHI regressions! I thought the IO people told us we weren't allowed to do those. http://www.nathanhmiller.org/hhiregs.pdf https://www-aeaweb-org.ezproxy.lib.utah.edu/articles?id=10.1257/jep.33.3.44 /2 https://twitter.com/Econ_Marshall/status/1526591496995999745/photo/1
Marshall Steinbaum 🔥 (@Econ_Marshall): @jasonfurman 2. "Natural/unnatural" as a meaningful distinction! Wait I thought economics was a social science. cc @sanjuktampaul /3 https://twitter.com/Econ_Marshall/status/1526591701879357440/photo/1
Marshall Steinbaum 🔥 (@Econ_Marshall): @jasonfurman @sanjuktampaul 3. Tension between the treatment of the "progressive economist" school and what @jasonfurman calls "Neo-Brandeisian": supposedly "broader goals" are non-economic, and yet... the tech platform business model depends on violating privacy/platform neutrality & worsening quality. /4 https://twitter.com/Econ_Marshall/status/1526593149161701376/photo/1
Marshall Steinbaum 🔥 (@Econ_Marshall): To give an example: Rideshare relies on deceiving drivers to reduce their residual labor supply elasticity to increase markups & eliminate platform competition. Hard to see how that's "non-economic." https://lpeproject.org/blog/the-antitrust-case-against-gig-economy-labor-platforms/ /5
Marshall Steinbaum 🔥 (@Econ_Marshall): Does that mean pursuing deception as a component of an antitrust claim is a "broader goal?" The sloganeering dissolves into insensibility upon contact with empirical reality. My own view is that we should follow the data, not the dogma. /fin
Marshall Steinbaum 🔥 (@Econ_Marshall): An additional thought: I think @ErikPeinert is exactly right: The anger over a left critique of antitrust orthodoxy is because incumbents correctly perceive their sacred cows are no longer being worshiped and their cult will not survive their death. https://www.promarket.org/2022/05/13/mergers-and-smoking-guns/