Replying to @conlon_chris
I think the best thing you can say about this bill is that it is a "messaging bill" that nobody intends to pass. I worry that the "message" being sent is: "We have failed to talk to a single serious economist". 7/8
Chris Conlon
3,354 posts
Chris Conlon
@conlon_chris
- New legislation on "price gouging" just dropped #econtwitter. Summary: fight inflation by making price increases illegal (Bonus: implement a strong Robinson-Patman like ban on price discrimination by large firms). 1/8 warren.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/…
- I'd like to thank the academy, @PMoserEcon @luismbcabral and my wonderful colleagues at @NYUSternEcon, my coauthors @MSinkinson @nirupama_rao @jeff_gortmaker and those not on twitter (Julie Mortimer, Matt Bacukus and Yinan Wang) and my mentors @steventberry and @PhilHaile.Yesterday was a great day because my @NYUSternEcon colleague @conlon_chris was promoted to tenure. Psyched for the department, school and for our students at Stern & @NYUFASEcon . So happy to have Chris around!
- #econtwitter should take a look at the (heavily redacted) @FTC Amazon complaint that came out recently. Given past experience, this case will likely not be resolved for 3-20 years. Not everything is visible -- but I'll give my best guesses below.. 1/ ftc.gov/system/files/f…
- This is circulating again... it is important to point out that the topline number is nonsense. Based on survey data, if you drink more than TEN drinks per week you are definitely in the top 10%. The problem is we can't find about half of alcohol consumption in surveys. 1/6
- Tip for reporters. If someone says "Profit share was 50% of price increases 2023", ask them what the labor share was. Answer: 93% This is not because workers caused inflation, it is because this whole exercise is nonsense. 1/3
Corporate profits rose 5x faster than inflation from 2020 to 2022 and drove over half of inflation for most of 2023. We need to fight back against big corporations’ price gouging and deceptive tactics, so we can lower costs for American families. I’m in that fight all the way. - What if there were a whole field of economics dedicated to studying market power? Too bad they gave it a non obvious name like “Industrial Organization”Replying to @RecoverwithcoleHe says: “No, it’s not that… If market power is such a big issue, why is no American economist working on it, and only Europeans with funny names such as Philippon, Zingales, Marinescu, De Loecker,…?” @ThomasPHI2 @zingales @mioana 3/
- If govt wants academics to do more practical work: (a) improve the quality and availability of data. Nobody can provide real-time analysis of data that are released with a 2-5 year lag. (b) increase social science funding at NSF to provide public goods not just QJE's. 1/4Replying to @mattyglesiasAs he says, academia’s very heavy emphasis on novelty incentivizes people to do the kind of work that’s not so useful to policymakers who mostly need to get the basics right — better data, a clearer sense of the overall state of the literature. slowboring.com/p/the-economic…
- Maybe you heard that "corporate profits are responsible for 60% of inflation". Turns out if you re-did that analysis using current data you would get a very different number. Corp profits have been in decline for three quarters while prices (and wages) continue to grow.
The idea that corporate profits could be driving inflation was once considered a "fringe theory." Why? Because it undermined those with power. But people are starting to learn the truth — and they're fed up. The time to tackle corporate price-gouging is now. - Replying to @conlon_chrisSuch sloppy drafting and terrible implications. Why raise wages if you have to go to court (and presumed guilty) to defend price increases? Public firms have to post pricing strategies --> Great for private equity. Lots of firms charge different prices to different customers. 8/8
- Replying to @conlon_chrisIn the press release, @SenWarren name checks Kroger. It turns out Kroger's COGS are actually growing faster than revenue, and margins are declining. Maybe this was meant to be more "impressionistic" than factual? 5/8
- A quick thread about current issues around markups. Many people have seen this figure, but there is still a lot of discussion around what it "means". Estimated markups appear to be rising but we aren't really sure why. 1/
- We will call today the official launch of pyBLP, our python package for differentiated products demand estimation. First, the accompanying paper we ask people to cite (with some new result re: instruments, FE, and best practices). chrisconlon.github.io/site/pyblp.pdf 1/3.
- My paper on Common Ownership in American with Matt Backus and Mike Sinkinson was recently accepted at AEJ:Micro. We ask the simple question: how much common ownership is there in the US economy? how much has that changed? and what drove it? chrisconlon.github.io/site/common_ow… 1/
