Thursday 31 January 2008

The sin but not the sinner

End of exam session, time to report a few "pearls of wisdom" found in student papers.

Logical
Answer: A breach is efficient when one of the parties is inefficient.

Research sponsored by Microsoft?
Statement: Contrary to competition, economics thinks that the best market structure is monopoly.

Think out of the (X)-box
Strategies: a good strategy for videogame makers is one-way compatibility: the videogame is compatible with the console. Alternatively, they can use two-way compatibility: also the console is compatible with the videogame.

Friday 11 January 2008

News from the US

A couple of interesting articles in the New York Times.

After years of an (arguably ideological) do-nothing approach, something is moving in US antitrust enforcement, albeit only at State level. The New York State attorney general is running an investigation in the Intel case. He is reported stating:
“Protecting fair and open competition in the microprocessor market is critical to New York, the United States and the world.”
Let's wait and see where this will lead.

At the same time, Paul Krugman is praising Europe and its approach to competition:
"What’s behind Europe’s comeback? It’s a complicated story, probably involving a combination of deregulation (which has expanded job opportunities) and smart regulation. One of the keys to Europe’s broadband success is that unlike U.S. regulators, many European governments have promoted competition, preventing phone and cable companies from monopolizing broadband access."