Does Common Leadership Facilitate Collusion? A Conversation with Ellie Prager
Ruled by Reason
In this episode of Ruled by Reason, AAI Senior Counsel David O. Fisher sits down with economist Ellie Prager to discuss her paper, , co-authored with Alejandro Herrera-Caicedo and Jessica Jeffers and accepted for publication in the Journal of Political Economy. The episode continues a discussion begun in the previous episode of Ruled by Reason about interlocking directorates, or what Professor Prager and her co-authors call “common leadership.” Whereas the term “interlocking directorates” traditionally refers to one person sitting on the boards of two companies, common leadership...
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Interlocking Directorates and the Antitrust Laws: A Conversation Between Roger Noll and Mark Lemley, Jerry S. Cohen Award Winner for Antitrust Scholarship
Ruled by Reason
In this episode of Ruled by Reason, guest host , Professor of Economics Emeritus at Stanford University and a member of the Jerry S. Cohen Award Selection Committee, sits down with , the William H. Neukom Professor of Law at Stanford Law School. The two discuss Professor Lemley’s award-winning article, , co-authored with Professor of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and , a 2025 graduate of Stanford Law School. The article won the 24th Annual , presented on June 4 at AAI’s 2026 Annual Policy Conference, . The article provides the first large-scale analysis of...
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Making Big Tech Antitrust Remedies Stick Beyond the Courtroom: A Conversation with Ron Schnell
Ruled by Reason
In this episode of Ruled by Reason, AAI Vice President and Director of Legal Advocacy Kathleen Bradish talks with Ron Schnell, a computer scientist, startup entrepreneur, and former general manager of the Technical Committee created to monitor Microsoft’s compliance with the U.S. v. Microsoft consent decrees. Their conversation explores what the antitrust bar still hasn’t fully absorbed from one of the most consequential post-remedy enforcement undertakings in U.S. antitrust history. Three themes run through the conversation: the need for early and deep technical engagement in remedy...
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Taking an “Extra” Look at Addressing Monopolization: A Conversation with Jennifer Sturiale
Ruled by Reason
In this episode of Ruled by Reason, AAI VP and Director of Legal Advocacy Kathleen Bradish speaks with Professor Jennifer Sturiale about how her recent work attempts to address the persistent gap between public concern over monopolies and the limits of current Section 2 enforcement. Sturiale notes at the outset that her work originates in a fundament, ongoing issue: while antitrust law is, by its nature, deliberately narrow—designed not to punish firms that acquire monopoly power through “superior business acumen” or historic accident—this leaves significant harms unaddressed. In...
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The Three-Legged Stool of U.S. Antitrust Enforcement: A Conversation with Michael Kades
Ruled by Reason
In this episode of Ruled by Reason, AAI President Randy Stutz talks with antitrust thought leader Michael Kades about the latest developments at the intersection of federal, state and private antitrust enforcement. The conversation begins with a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of federal, state and private enforcers in the current enforcement climate (5:11). It then moves to the promise of “public entity litigation,” in which private counsel represent federal, state or local government entities in bringing enforcement actions they lack the resources to bring on their own (8:45)....
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From Labor Market Theory to Antitrust Policy: A Conversation with Ioana Marinescu
Ruled by Reason
On this episode of Ruled by Reason, AAI Senior Counsel David O. Fisher talks with leading economist Ioana Marinescu about the theoretical frameworks underpinning labor monopsony and how they apply in various antitrust law and policy contexts. The conversation centers on Marinescu’s recent paper with coauthor José Azar, , which lays out the theoretical frameworks underlying monopsony power in labor markets and develops a theory-informed discussion of antitrust law and policy. The conversation begins with an examination of Marinescu’s background and her research on labor markets and...
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Monopolizing by Conditioning: A Conversation Between Jack Kirkwood and Daniel Francis, Jerry S. Cohen Award Winner for Antitrust Scholarship
Ruled by Reason
In this episode of Ruled by Reason, guest host , Professor of Law and the William C. Oltman Professor of Teaching Excellence at Seattle University School of Law, sits down with , Assistant Professor of Law at NYU Law School. The two discuss Francis’s award-winning article, . Professor Francis’s article won the 23rd Annual Jerry S. Cohen Memorial Fund Writing Award, presented on May 29 at AAI’s 2025 Annual Policy Conference, . The article demonstrates that conditional dealing should be recognized as its own, separate form of monopolistic conduct rather than squeezed into ill-fitting...
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Applying Computer Science Principles to Police Modern Cartels: A Conversation with Giovanna Massarotto
Ruled by Reason
On this episode of Ruled by Reason, AAI Senior Counsel David O. Fisher chats with legal scholar Giovanna Massarotto about what antitrust law can learn from computer science, and particularly how understanding agreement algorithms can help courts and enforcers police algorithmic price-fixing and other illegal agreements under Section 1 of the Sherman Act. The conversation centers on Massarotto’s recent paper, , which examines the characteristics of agreement algorithms and how they can inform the “plus factor” analysis courts use to determine the likelihood of an illegal...
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Experts, Daubert, and Judicial Gatekeeping: A Conversation with Edoardo Peruzzi and Christine Bartholomew
Ruled by Reason
On this episode of Ruled by Reason, AAI Senior Counsel David O. Fisher chats with economist Edoardo Peruzzi and antitrust scholar Christine Bartholomew about the role of Daubert challenges in antitrust suits, focusing on the increasing role of Daubert as a gatekeeping device that may be hindering private antitrust enforcement. The conversation begins with an examination of Peruzzi’s recent working paper, which finds that Daubert challenges have become more frequent in antitrust cases and that, although plaintiffs’ experts are challenged more frequently, defendants’ experts are more often...
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How the Agri-Stats Case Can Help Shape Treatment of Anticompetitive Information Exchanges: A Discussion Between Emily Bridges of the Food and Agriculture Impact Project and Professor Peter Carstensen
Ruled by Reason
On this episode of Ruled by Reason, Emily Bridges of the Food and Agriculture Impact Project has a wide-ranging discussion with antitrust scholar Peter Carstensen about the role of information exchange in restricting competition in agricultural markets, focusing on how the DOJ’s case against Agri-Stats addresses that threat. After covering the oligopolistic nature of many agricultural markets (2:45), the two do a deep dive on why information exchange can be so harmful to competition (11:04). Professor Carstensen explains how the law on information exchange has evolved and how that history...
info_outlineIn this podcast episode, AAI President Diana Moss sits down with two airline pilots, Kelly Ison and Eric McEldowney, to talk about the effect of airline consolidation on labor workforces. There have been almost 20 airline mergers involving U.S. carriers in the last two decades, six of which have involved mergers of major legacy and low-cost carriers. Today, the sector is dominated by a tight oligopoly of carriers. But consolidation continues, with merger proposals such as JetBlue and Spirit, joint ventures like the Northeast Alliance codeshare, and increasing complexity in the international immunized airline alliances. While the effect of consolidation on consumers remains important, not enough has been said about effects on labor. Today’s episode fills this gap. Moss, Ison, and McEldowney do a deep dive into airline consolidation and how it affects pilots. Their discussion ranges from changes in the industry since airline deregulation in the late 1970s, to consolidation and loss of competition, to policy proposals for promoting competition in airlines for the benefit of airline labor forces.