#AcademicRunPlaylist - 2/16/24

It was a beautiful winter day in Boston, which I enjoyed during a shorter run with talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was an interesting talk by Pablo Ibáñez Colomo on remedies in the EU competition law system at the Mannheim Centre for Competition and Innovation (MaCCI) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz2l8qxDnfg

Next was an all-star panel on reorienting antitrust around power analyses at Cristina Caffarra's can't miss antitrust event with Andreas Mundt, Luigi Zingales, Tommaso Valletti, Becca Kelly Slaughter, and Gina Cass-Gottlieb. There's so much packed into this conversation around the importance of antitrust, the evolving nature of corporate power and antitrust policies, and more. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWNIhGA8Rx8

Next was an intriguing talk by Mark Yatskar on using language models for image recognition interpretability at the Carnegie Mellon University - School of Computer Science - Language Technologies Institute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKlcPn48UwE

Next was an amazing panel on market power dysfunctions and the issues with traditional economic approaches with Isabella Weber, Jan Eeckout, Gabriel ZUCMAN, Doha Mekki, and Florian Ederer. Florian has the line of the conference: "The gospel of Berry-Levinsohn-Pakes says we must use the holy ritual of demand estimation and use the holy purification ritual of Hausman instruments." Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6WuLxhihSA

Next was a fantastic talk by Jon Kleinberg on the challenge of understanding what users want at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society. Kleinberg beautifully lays out why it's important for algorithmic development that people can have multiple preferences, examining the implications for algorithmic feeds specifically. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9A8r__NP_To

Next was a great panel on revisiting industrial policy with Nathan Lane, Ufuk Akgicit, Heather Boushey, and René Repasi. The important point emphasized throughout this discussion - everything is political, and everything is industrial policy, whether it's explicit or not https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SBW3hYA3V8

Next was an informative talk by Anupam Chander on the future of transnational data transfers at Sciences Po https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArZY4sgkCrg

Next was an engaging panel on the goals of Europe's digital regulation initiatives with Alberto Bacchiega, Filomena Chirico, Brando Benifei, Amba Kak, Francesca Bria, Johnny Ryan, and Joanna Bryson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1-8ESPjHnI

Last was an excellent talk by Josh Lerner on the nature of the venture capital industry at the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise. Lerner lays out the important role of VC investment in spurring innovation and economic growth, then goes into its systemic issues and failures and ends with some suggestions for structural improvement. Also lots of spicy takes along the way! Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEIbTL4QhAw