Miscellaneous

Pre-emptive regulation of vertical integration could harm, rather than help, consumer welfare because integration is not predictive of future market problems, states Bruce Owen in “Antitrust and Vertical Integration in ‘New Economy’ Industries” released today by the Technology Policy Institute. According to the author, “Toadying to uninformed populist fears of vertical integration between network providers and content creators by imposing investment-dampening ex ante regulatory constraints is likely to be far less useful to the public than steps to ensure effective competition among network providers.” Instead, he suggests ex post antitrust enforcement could address specific market abuses. The paper is a preliminary version prepared for the recent TPI event, “Antitrust and the Dynamics of Competition in High-Tech Industries.”

Adopting a return-free federal income tax system, or Simple Return, would introduce a host of challenges and would not result in overall cost savings, state Arlene Holen and Joseph Cordes in “Should the Government Prepare Individual Tax Returns?” released today by the Technology Policy Institute. The paper was submitted to the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform in response to the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board’s report to the President on options for changing the current tax system.

The Technology Policy Institute co-hosted a workshop with the DiploFoundation on network neutrality issues at the Internet Governance Forum 2010 Meeting held in Vilnius, Lithuania, September 14 – 17.