Keyword: consumer welfare

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US

Infrastructure Spending

This week's IGM Economic Experts Panel Statements: A)    The US should increase spending now on roads, railways, bridges and airports (including new projects, maintenance or both).   B)    The advisability of increasing federal spending on roads, railways, bridges and airports is independent of whether the US also enacts tax cuts that substantially lower revenues.
Europe

Congestion Pricing

This week's IGM European Economic Experts Panel statement: In general, using more congestion charges in crowded transportation networks — such as higher tolls during peak travel times in cities, and peak fees for airplane takeoff and landing slots — and using the proceeds to lower other taxes would make citizens on average better off.
US

Amazon and Market Power

This week’s IGM Economic Experts Panel statements: A: Amazon has monopsony power in the market for books that is significantly reducing the supply of books. B: Amazon has sufficient monopsony power that regulatory intervention is likely to make consumers of books better off, taking into account implementation costs and the effect of intervention on incentives.
US

Patents

This week’s IGM Economic Experts Panel statements: A: All else equal, Patent Assertion Entities — which specialize in acquiring and asserting patents and are popularly known as “patent trolls" — promote innovation in the U.S. B: Within the software industry, the US patent system makes consumers better off than they would be in the absence of patents.
US

Net Neutrality II

This week’s IGM Economic Experts Panel statement: Considering both distributional effects and changes in efficiency, it is a good idea to let companies that send video or other content to consumers pay more to Internet service providers for the right to send that traffic using faster or higher quality service.
US

Surge Pricing

This week’s IGM Economic Experts Panel statement: Using surge pricing to allocate transportation services — such as Uber does with its cars — raises consumer welfare through various potential channels, such as increasing the supply of those services, allocating them to people who desire them the most, and reducing search and queuing costs.