The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) U.S. antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. The FTC shares jurisdiction over federal civil antitrust enforcement with the Department of Justice Antitrust Division. The agency is headquartered in the Federal Trade Commission Building in Washington, DC.The FTC was established in 1914 with the passage of the Federal Trade Commission Act, signed in response to the 19th-century monopolistic trust crisis. Since its inception, the FTC has enforced the provisions of the Clayton Act, a key antitrust statute, as well as the provisions of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. § 41 et seq. Over time, the FTC's has been delegated with the enforcement of additional business regulation statutes and has promulgated a number of regulations (codified in Title 16 of the Code of Federal Regulations). The broad statutory authority granted to the FTC provides it with more surveillance and monitoring abilities than it actually uses.: 571 The FTC is composed of five Commissioners, who each serve seven-year terms. Members of the commission are nominated by the President and subject to Senate confirmation, and no more than three FTC members can be of the same party. One member of the body serves as FTC Chair at the President's pleasure, with Commissioner Lina Khan having served as chair since June 2021.S.S.C.S.S.S.C.C.
This study analyzes hospital competition within narrow network health insurance products. We characterize the implications of provider mergers when narrow networks are present. The existence of narrow network insurance plans can lead merger-induced price effects through competitive restraint, leading to merger effects beyond those due to direct, head-to-head competition. We empirically apply these findings to a proposed acquisition that was investigated by the Federal Trade Commission and find evidence suggesting that accounting for narrow networks generates substantially larger price effects.
We examine the Great Recession's long-term impact on federal student loan borrowing and repayment, using detailed federal administrative records and leveraging comparisons across labor markets with varying unemployment severity. A one percentage point increase in recession unemployment caused 7% higher outstanding debt and 6% more defaults. By 2019, the recession accounted for 19%-32% of undergraduate debt increases and 10%-25% of default increases across institutional sectors. Borrowers enrolled at the onset of the recession experienced the largest effects on debt accumulation and repayment distress. For this group, recession-induced borrowing is linked with sustained declines in program completion, suggesting reduced financial welfare.
Antitrust authorities frequently rely on structural divestitures to address competitive concerns raised by mergers. Using census-level establishment data and proprietary transaction records from the U.S. grocery sector, we provide systematic evidence on the long-run effects of such remedies. Divested stores experience an average 31 percent decline in employment over five years, driven by elevated exit rates and persistent contraction among surviving establishments. Sales similarly decline. Transaction-level evidence indicates that divested assets are systematically weaker and are often transferred to lower-capability buyers. These findings suggest that structural remedies may be less effective when the implementation of divestitures allows merging parties substantial discretion over the assets and buyers involved.
ABSTRACT JetBlue entered transatlantic air travel markets at comparable prices to competitors, which resulted in an increase in the total number of travelers and a minimal reallocation of existing shares—a phenomenon we dub the “international JetBlue effect.” We estimate that JetBlue's entry into 13 transatlantic markets from its New York and Boston hubs has generated roughly $259 million per year in consumer surplus, with approximately 38% of the benefits accruing to the business class cabin. We simulate JetBlue's entry into 16 similar transatlantic markets and estimate that such entry would generate an additional $108 million per year in consumer surplus. We suspect that the international JetBlue effect could arise as other US carriers expand into international markets, such as Alaska Airlines' planned expansion into Asia from its US West Coast hubs.
Roughly 20 percent of US workers have noncompete agreements (NCAs), restricting their ability to join or form competing firms after separating from their employer. While there is now evidence that stricter NCA enforceability reduces wages, effects on productivity are a priori unclear. Enforcing NCAs might lower productivity by discouraging worker effort, creating mismatch in labor markets, or reducing innovation and entrepreneurship. Alternatively, enforcing NCAs might increase productivity by encouraging firm investment. We estimate the net effect of legal NCA enforceability on productivity by introducing a novel dataset on state-level manufacturing.
