EconWorks Podcast

EconWorks

Industrial organization insights on antitrust, digital platforms, and competition in ecosystem markets. blog.econworks.com

  1. 3d ago

    Zillow–Redfin: Keep the Cooperation, Restore the Rivalry

    The Zillow-Redfin case never went to court. Instead, the FTC, five states, Zillow, and Redfin agreed to a settlement that does something more interesting than just unwind the deal. Zillow can continue syndicating rental listings to Redfin, maintaining the cooperation the companies say yields efficiencies. But Redfin needs to rebuild its own rental-advertising business and re-emerge as an independent competitor. This episode asks what the settlement tells us about the economics of antitrust remedy. Did the earlier lawsuit assist both parties in reassessing the risks of trial? Why would Zillow want to do a competitor a favor? And can a remedy preserve the efficiencies of cooperation while removing the ban on competition? We also compare the settlement to the Google search remedies, where rivals are being given access to inputs that could help them compete more effectively. The court case may be wrapping up. The economic experiment has just begun. Read the full article and graphic analysis: https://blog.econworks.com/p/the-ftc-lost-the-motion-then-zillow?r=562wri Explore more visual economics content: https://econworks.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EconWorks-d3e Substack: https://blog.econworks.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit blog.econworks.com/subscribe

    Zillow–Redfin: Keep the Cooperation, Restore the Rivalry

  2. 4d ago

    How Cartels Really Work, Episode 1: What Makes Something a Cartel?

    Two gas stations competing with each other charge $4.50 each. That alone does not tell us whether they formed a cartel. They may incur the same costs. They may react to each other’s prices independently. Repeated interaction may teach them not to start price wars. Economists might refer to the result as tacit collusion. Or they may have conspired to set prices. In the first episode of How Cartels Really Work, EconWorks explores the boundary between competition and cartel behavior—and why the economic outcome alone can’t tell us where firms fall on that boundary. And then we replace the human pricing managers with AIS. Suppose both companies instruct their systems to maximize profits, obey antitrust laws, and never collude. What if the AI agents do talk to each other, coordinate, find a workaround, or hide what they are doing anyway? The technology is new, but the question behind it is an old one: When have competitors stopped acting on their own and started acting together? Read the full article and graphic analysis: https://blog.econworks.com/p/how-cartels-really-work-episode-1?r=562wri Explore more visual economics content: https://econworks.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EconWorks-d3e Substack: https://blog.econworks.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit blog.econworks.com/subscribe

    How Cartels Really Work, Episode 1: What Makes Something a Cartel?

  3. 5d ago

    Zillow–Redfin Settled: Who Actually Won?

    The antitrust case against Zillow and Redfin was scheduled to go to trial. The parties instead settled. The FTC did not kill the entire partnership. The companies will still syndicate rental listings to Redfin, maintaining the efficiencies they say benefit renters and property managers. But Redfin has to rebuild its independent rental advertising business and compete against Zillow again. Then who won? This episode goes deeper than the legal headlines and asks how it was economically feasible for both sides to settle. We will additionally address how pretrial litigation may have altered the bargaining positions of the parties, why Zillow had less incentive to continue litigating once the FTC retained the syndication efficiencies, and why Redfin may become a more formidable competitor than it was before. The larger question is whether today’s antitrust remedies can restore rivalry while preserving cooperation. Continue the cooperation. Bring back the rivalry. Now we get to see if it works. Read the full article and graphic analysis: https://blog.econworks.com/p/the-ftc-lost-the-motion-then-zillow?r=562wri Explore more visual economics content: https://econworks.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EconWorks-d3e Substack: https://blog.econworks.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit blog.econworks.com/subscribe

    Zillow–Redfin Settled: Who Actually Won?

  4. 6d ago

    How Cartels Really Work, Episode 1: What Makes Something a Cartel?

    Two gas stations are using AI to price their gas. They both come out at $4.50. “That’s a cartel? Not always. Common costs, standard competitive interdependence, tacit collusion, and an agreement between the AI agents—or an old-fashioned agreement between the humans running the firms—could all result in the same price. In Episode 1 of How Cartels Really Work, EconWorks poses an apparently simple question: What is a cartel? We consider the difference between * parallel pricing, interdependence, * conspiracy of silence, * communications, * deal, * and direct price-fixing. Then we complicate the problem. What if humans tell their artificial intelligence systems to maximize profits but respect the antitrust laws and don't collude? What if the AIs still coordinate? Suppose they communicate? What if they find a way around to colluding? And if they conceal the evidence? In each case, the price you see may be exactly the same. The legal story underneath may be entirely different. The cartel is not the price. The question is how the competitors got there. Next in the series: Why price fixing is easier to explain than it is to prove. Read the full article and graphic analysis: https://blog.econworks.com/p/how-cartels-really-work-episode-1?r=562wri Explore more visual economics content: https://econworks.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EconWorks-d3e Substack: https://blog.econworks.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit blog.econworks.com/subscribe

    How Cartels Really Work, Episode 1: What Makes Something a Cartel?

  5. Sep 4

    The Antitrust Theory That Slept for 55 Years

    What if you have a monopolist who, technically, allows customers to buy a product separately, but prices the standalone product so high that the only economically sensible thing to do is to take the bundle? That is the premise of **constructive tying**, an antitrust theory that was accepted decades ago but not often used since the early 1970s. The theory has been reinvigorated by the Second Circuit in Cumulus Media v. Nielsen. Cumulus was buying some local ratings from a competitor while trying to get Nielsen’s national radio ratings. Eventually Nielsen offered the national product separately but at a much higher price. This episode explains why constructive tying has largely fallen out of favor, why the facts in *Cumulus* were different, and why the decision could provide future plaintiffs with a modern roadmap for challenging pricing structures that effectively force customers into bundles. The bigger lesson is that bundle discounts or high prices are not illegal in and of themselves. What antitrust law may sometimes do is look beyond whether a customer is technically free to choose and ask whether that choice is economically real. Read the full article and graphic analysis: https://blog.econworks.com/p/the-antitrust-theory-that-slept-for?r=562wri Explore more visual economics content: https://econworks.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EconWorks-d3e Substack: https://blog.econworks.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit blog.econworks.com/subscribe

    The Antitrust Theory That Slept for 55 Years

  6. Sep 3

    What If Your AI Breaks the Antitrust Laws?

    You tell your AI to make as much money as you can. The instruction is quite standard. But what if the AI learns that profits increase if it cooperates with competitors—or makes life difficult for a new competitor? It wasn't ordered to set prices. No one told it to exclude its competitors. The machine worked out the strategy: What do autonomous AI agents mean for antitrust law? Cartel law looks at whether competitors really made an agreement. Monopolization law asks whether a powerful firm harmed the competitive process, not simply whether it competed aggressively. AI doesn't solve those traditional questions. It might make them a lot harder to reply to. Consumers may face the same delegation problem. If you ask an AI to find the best deal, it might come up with solutions you’d never have thought of. This episode is the entry point to three future EconWorks series: How Cartels Really Work, How Monopolization Really Works, and When Your AI Meets Their AI. All three have the same question behind them: What if humans choose the objective, and AI chooses the method? We tell the AI what we want it to do. More and more, AI is figuring out how to do that. What if a firm's AI independently discovers coordination with competitors or exclusionary strategies? What’s the impact of consumers using their own autonomous agents? A portal to new EconWorks series on cartels, monopolization, and AI on both sides of the market. Read the full article and graphic analysis: https://blog.econworks.com/p/what-if-your-ai-breaks-the-antitrust?r=562wri Explore more visual economics content: https://econworks.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EconWorks-d3e Substack: https://blog.econworks.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit blog.econworks.com/subscribe

    What If Your AI Breaks the Antitrust Laws?

  7. Sep 2

    The Antitrust Theory That Slept for 55 Years

    An organization claims you can buy Product A, but not Product B. The only issue is that product A is so expensive that no one would ever choose it. A choice indeed? In Cumulus Media v. Nielsen, the Second Circuit revived an antitrust theory that had largely fallen out of use for more than half a century: constructive tying. Traditional tying is simple: buy A only if you buy B. Constructive tying is more subtle. The products may be technically available on their own, but the economics of the pricing structure can make purchasing them separately infeasible. This episode examines why the doctrine largely faded away following the 1971 American Manufacturers decision, what Cumulus did differently, and why the new ruling may lead to more constructive-tying suits involving data, software, subscriptions, and other bundled products. The ruling does not mean that high standalone prices or bundle discounts are automatically illegal. The more interesting question is when does pricing cease to be ordinary bargaining and become a tool to force customers to buy another product? Read the full article and graphic analysis: https://blog.econworks.com/p/the-antitrust-theory-that-slept-for?r=562wri Explore more visual economics content: https://econworks.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EconWorks-d3e Substack: https://blog.econworks.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit blog.econworks.com/subscribe

    The Antitrust Theory That Slept for 55 Years

  8. Sep 1

    What If Your AI Breaks the Antitrust Laws?

    A company tells its AI to maximize profits. It does not tell the AI to set prices, to collude with competitors, or to shut out competitors. But what if the AI comes up with those strategies on its own? A recent example is the case of an AI agent and a gym booking system. The larger issue is that humans are increasingly describing the goal, and AI is choosing the method. On this episode of EconWorks, we look at what these developments could mean for antitrust law. If an AI learns to cooperate with competitors, then that raises the question of cartel law: Was there really an agreement? If a dominant firm's AI discovers ways to make life harder for rivals, the question leads to monopolization: Was the conduct ordinary competition or unlawful exclusion? The same issue could arise on the other side of the market if consumers use AI agents. This episode introduces three upcoming EconWorks series: * How Cartels Really Work * How Monopolization Really Works * When Your AI Meets Their AI The bigger question is deceptively simple: What happens when we tell an AI what we want—but no longer determine exactly how it gets there? Read the full article and graphic analysis: https://blog.econworks.com/p/what-if-your-ai-breaks-the-antitrust?r=562wri Explore more visual economics content: https://econworks.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EconWorks-d3e Substack: https://blog.econworks.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit blog.econworks.com/subscribe

    What If Your AI Breaks the Antitrust Laws?
See All (71)

About

Industrial organization insights on antitrust, digital platforms, and competition in ecosystem markets. blog.econworks.com

Information

  • Creator
    EconWorks
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    71
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © EconWorks Consulting Inc.
  • Show Website
    EconWorks Podcast