Thread by @matthewstoller

1. Ok, this is kind of interesting. NBER's industrial organization section, which is the gathering of economists who study antitrust, just did something that seems a bit odd with regards to its annual conference. nber.org/conferences/in…

2. On day one of their conference, Friday, there was a panel with a bunch of antitrust economists who very much dislike Lina Khan and the new anti-monopoly movement. It was a lively panel, and I watched it.

3. Economist @florianederer live-tweeted the panel, and it kicked up something of a storm among those of us who care about the politics of antitrust economics. You can read his thread here.

https://twitter.com/florianederer/status/1489683777634779137

4. These ethical/political debates are nerdy but they really matter. Economists in this sector are the key actors blocking action on market power abuses, often by falsifying or manipulating data. Here's an adjacent ag economist causing big problems. mattstoller.substack.com/p/economists-t…

5. The NBER panel was designed to explain to academics what is happening in D.C. with regards to antitrust policy. Basically, who is Lina Khan and Jonathan Kanter? Why do so many now involved in anti-monopoly policy distrust centering economists in policy?

6. It's an important set of debates within the economics profession. Obama economists and current professors Carl Shapiro and @ProfFionasm both argued that anti-monopolists are wrong to no longer center economists. Paid consultants, not academics, are the problem.

7. They said that academic economists are simply too rarefied to care about policy debates, and thus they have allowed the right-wing bad guys from @ProfWrightGMU's George Mason school to dominate discourse among judges and enforcers.

8. That's not really true. Both Shapiro and @ProfFionasm are or were paid consultants, in Shapiro's case for Google and in Fiona's case Apple and Amazon. They intersect the academic and consulting world, as many in IO economics in that room did.

9. There was a bit of condescension, which I thought was telling. For instance, @ProfFionasm said “What do I think of the new Brandeisians? I feel sorry for them. They don’t have the training to understand economics.”

10. Shapiro accurately conveyed my views about economists. And said, “You can read his work, but I don’t recommend it.” You can watch the video here.

11. Or rather, you *can't* watch it. The video is no longer available. An organizer made that video private, and uploaded a different new video of the conference.

12. The new one video has all the interesting panels from that day presenting new economic research on market power. But not the panel on antitrust politics. That one's gone. I'd like to believe that removing this panel from public viewing was just an error.

13. Hopefully they'll restore it. It's an important set of discussions to be aired publicly, as organizers @conlon_chris, @giulia_bran and Alan T. Sorensen know. That's the best way for economists to get the respect they feel they are owed. Earn it through engaging with critics.

14. Having that panel be public allowed us to engage with Shapiro and @ProfFionasm. And the questions were lively and interesting. I watched most of it, but figured I could come back and finish it later. Alas. Anyway. The debate will go on.

15. If they took it down as a mistake, put it back up. If they did take it down for political reasons, just put it back up. The only reason it would become more than just another panel is if it stays hidden.

16. It's also possible I'm wrong, and the panel is somewhere online and I can't find it. In that case, I'm being stupid and I accept all the mockery I deserve.