Profit over Patients: How the Rules of Our Economy Encourage the Pharmaceutical Industry’s Extractive Behavior
Wednesday, 20 February 2019
The pharmaceutical industry isn’t working for most people in the US. Over 80 percent of Americans across the political spectrum believe that lowering drug costs should be a “top priority” for lawmakers and believe that prescription drug costs are “unreasonable.” This growing scrutiny presents an opportunity to question the ways that drug corporations run business, as
- Published in Brief, homepage-slider, Publications
Ending Shareholder Primacy in Corporate Governance
Wednesday, 13 February 2019
For nearly half of a century, America’s public corporations have been driven by a shareholder primacy approach to corporate governance, increasingly prioritizing shareholder payments over other, more productive uses of corporate resources. Over the same period, employee bargaining power has decreased and wages for nonexecutive workers have remained flat across sectors. In Ending Shareholder Primacy in Corporate Governance,
- Published in Economic Inclusion, Economy & Growth, homepage-slider, Publications, Work and Labor, Working Papers
A Proposal to Enhance Antitrust Protection Against Labor Market Monopsony
Thursday, 10 January 2019
The United States has a labor monopsony problem. Though legal tools are already in place to combat monopsony, they have only been used against the most obvious forms of anticompetitive conduct like no-poaching agreements. More generally, there has been virtually no enforcement against abuses of monopsony power in labor markets. In a Roosevelt Institute working
- Published in Brief, Economy & Growth, Publications
The Labor Market Impact of the Proposed Sprint–T-Mobile Merger
Monday, 17 December 2018
In partnership with the Economic Policy Institute, Roosevelt Research Associate Adil Abdela and Research Director and Fellow Marshall Steinbaum examine the impact of the proposed Sprint/T-Mobile merger on the labor market. Cutting the number of national players in the U.S. wireless industry from four to three, this move would escalate market power in the industry
- Published in Economy & Growth, homepage-slider, Publications
Off-Balance: Five Strategies for a Judiciary that Supports Democracy
Tuesday, 13 November 2018
The Supreme Court is facing a democracy deficit, where the number of justices and the length of their terms have created a Court that does not reflect the views of the American public. This point is underscored by the fact that four out of five members of the conservative majority were nominated by presidents who
- Published in homepage-slider, Politics, Publications, Report
The Unsound Theory Behind the Consumer (and Total) Welfare Goal in Antitrust
Wednesday, 07 November 2018
In The Unsound Theory Behind the Consumer (and Total) Welfare Goal in Antitrust, a working paper for the Roosevelt Institute, University of Utah economics professor and antitrust scholar Mark Glick examines why the New Brandeisians are correct to reject the consumer welfare (CW) standard. Delving deeper—and pushing antitrust scholarship forward—he argues that the CW or total welfare standard was
- Published in Politics, Publications, Working Papers
The Student Debt Crisis, Labor Market Credentialization, and Racial Inequality: How the Current Student Debt Debate Gets the Economics Wrong
Tuesday, 16 October 2018
As tuition has risen over the last several decades in the U.S., student loan debt has ballooned. Despite growing debt loads, federal policy encourages the use of loans for financing higher education, based on the assumption that student debt supports increased postsecondary attainment—and, in turn, improved outcomes for individuals and our economy as a whole.
- Published in Economy & Growth, Education, homepage-slider, Publications, Report
Towards ‘Accountable Capitalism’: Remaking Corporate Law through Stakeholder Governance
Thursday, 04 October 2018
Corporations today operate according to a model of corporate governance known as “shareholder primacy.” This theory claims that the purpose of a corporation is to generate returns for shareholders, and that decision-making should be focused on a singular goal: maximizing shareholder value. This single-minded focus—which often comes at the expense of investments in workers, innovation,
- Published in Brief, Economic Inclusion, homepage-slider, Publications
Left Behind: Snapshots from the 21st Century Labor Market
Wednesday, 03 October 2018
In Left Behind: Snapshots from the 21st Century Labor Market, Roosevelt Program Director Rakeen Mabud and Program Associate Jess Forden explore today’s changing economy and the future of work through the lens of six occupations: carework, food service, manufacturing, mining, nursing, and trucking. Despite a seemingly robust and healthy economy, as indicated by headline measures
- Published in Economy & Growth, homepage-slider, Publications, Report, Work and Labor
The Effective Competition Standard: A New Standard for Antitrust
Tuesday, 25 September 2018
America’s failing antitrust system is, in large part, to blame for today’s market power problem. Lax antitrust law and enforcement have allowed troubling trends like corporate consolidation to remain unchallenged, further embedding our skewed economy. In highly consolidated markets, consumers have limited choice and little power to pick their price, quality, or provider for the
- Published in Economy & Growth, homepage-slider, Publications, Report
