Authors: Zarek Brot-Goldberg, University of Chicago Zack Cooper, Yale University Stuart V. Craig, University of Wisconsin–Madison Lev Klarnet, Harvard University Abstract: From 2002 to 2020, there were over 1,000 mergers of US hospitals. During this period, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) took enforcement actions against 13 transactions. However, using the FTC’s standard screening tools, we find that 20% of these mergers could have been predicted to meaningfully lessen competition. We then show that, from 2010 to 2015, predictably anticompetitive mergers resulted in price increases over 5 ..read more

A new report from the National Academy of Science’s Committee on National Statistics is packed with recommendations for building an integrated system of national statistics that can provide accurate and timely measurement of the distribution of income, consumption, and wealth in the United States. Implementing this report’s recommendations would supercharge policymakers’ understanding of U.S. inequality and provide them with critical economic intelligence for steering the U.S. economy. There’s not nearly enough room here to provide a summary of all the panel’s findings, but this column provid ..read more

This issue brief has been excerpted with minor modifications from a more extensive treatment of these issues in “Capital Taxation and Market Power,” to be published in the forthcoming Spring 2024 issue of Tax Law Review, Issue 77, Number 2. Overview Rising market power in the United States and around the world calls for changes to our nation’s international corporate taxation system. The importance of market power today suggests that corporate tax policy should distinguish between normal returns to capital and above-normal returns to capital, the latter of which is a telling indicator of corp ..read more

The nearly 90-year-old federal-state Unemployment Insurance program provides much-needed relief to unemployed workers who lose their jobs through no fault of their own and helps to stabilize the U.S. economy during downturns. Through 14 recessions since its enactment as part of the New Deal, most recently the Great Recession of 2007–2009 and the short but sharp COVID-19 recession in 2020, this pivotal income support program remains a cornerstone of our nation’s social infrastructure. Yet despite its strengths, the UI system falls short in serious ways. New U.S. Senate legislation—the Unemploy ..read more

How antitrust enforcement in the United States can improve competition in the U.S. healthcare system to promote more equitable economic growth Overview The U.S. policy landscape is replete with reports from organizations across the political spectrum decrying the lack of competition in hospital markets around the nation and the resulting high prices, mixed quality, and potential drag on labor markets. The COVID-19 pandemic simultaneously accelerated the trend of hospital consolidation and revealed, in the starkest terms, the consequences of this consolidation: reduced capacity to care for cr ..read more

Amid ongoing congressional debate over expanding the Child Tax Credit for U.S. families, it’s important to understand why the fears about the expansion of that tax credit in 2021 were wrong. One of the more prominent concerns voiced at the time was that families who qualified for the expanded tax credit would spend the additional money unwisely, even perhaps using it to buy illicit drugs. These concerns were offensive on many levels. One never hears those same legislators worrying about the spending habits of the families or individuals enrolled in other government programs, such as the mortg ..read more

Authors: Jonathan Fisher, Washington Center for Equitable Growth Jake Schild, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics David S. Johnson, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Abstract: This article summarizes the literature that studied how people used the 2021 advance Child Tax Credit. Four primary findings emerged. Families more frequently reporting paying down debt during the first few months the payments were being distributed. In the final months of payments, families more frequently reported spending it. Families primarily used the monthly CTC on household necessities and chil ..read more

A research update Fast facts Building on prior research, some new studies demonstrate that there is a relationship between high levels of inequality and low levels of absolute mobility, or a child’s economic well-being compared to their parents’ economic well-being at a similar point in the life cycle. New methodological innovations have engendered a more comprehensive understanding of the relationships between inequality and mobility. For instance, examining racial inequality, the University of California, Los Angeles’ Randall Akee and his colleagues use unique linked data to demonstrate the ..read more

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Overview Antitrust policy in the U.S. healthcare sector is perennially 10 years behind the industry. But at the start of the Biden administration in early 2021, there was hope for a change. After nearly 40 years of what has been called a complete antitrust policy failure,1 the administration’s promise to pursue aggressive competition policies—and ultimately enhance competitiveness—was met with near-desperate relief. The promise began with campaign promises and culminated in the July 2021 “Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy.”2 The executive order included an especi ..read more