Dr. Mary Shirley is President of the Ronald Coase Institute, a nonprofit organization working to improve knowledge of institutions and to build the capacity of young scholars to analyze and overcome institutional problems in their own countries. Mary has a PhD in economics and has worked for over 30 years in development, including over 20 years as a research manager in the World Bank. She's author of numerous scholarly articles and books on institutional issues and economic development. She's also written on reform of state owned enterprises, including telecom, water, and more.

Ronald Coase Institute President Mary Shirley on Institutions and Economic Development

Professor Edward Miguel is the Oxfam Professor of Environmental and Resource Economics and Faculty Director of the Center for Effective Global Action at the University of California, Berkeley. We will be talking about his book, Transparent and Reproducible Social Science Research, written with Garrett Christenson and Jeremy Freese. This podcast is part of our series on evidence-based policy.

Edward Miguel on the “Replication Crisis” in Economics and How to Fix It

Professor Diane Coyle is the Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge. Professor Coyle co-directs the Bennett Institute where she heads research under the themes of progress and productivity. She is also a Director of the Productivity Institute, a Fellow of the Office for National Statistics, an expert adviser to the National Infrastructure Commission, and Senior Independent Member of the ESRC Council. She has served in public service roles including as Vice Chair of the BBC Trust, member of the Competition Commission, of the Migration Advisory Committee and of the Natural Capital Committee. Professor Coyle was awarded a CBE for her contribution to the public understanding of economics in the 2018 New Year Honours. Her new book, "Cogs and Monsters: What Economics Is, and What It Should Be," is available now.

Diane Coyle on How Economics Can Evolve with a Changing World

Adam Kovacevich is the founder and CEO of the Chamber of Progress, a new, center-left tech industry policy coalition promoting technology's progressive future. The organization works to ensure that all Americans benefit from technological leaps and that the tech industry operates responsibly and fairly. Adam is a veteran Democratic tech industry leader who has had a front-row seat for more than 20 years in the tech industry's political maturation.

Adam Kovacevich on Big Tech Through a Progressive Lens

As states ramp up their efforts to distribute broadband funding, policymakers will need data to help them identify the areas of their state that are in dire need of investment. On the latest edition of Two Think Minimum, Scott Wallsten, Sarah Oh, and Nathaniel Lovin discussed TPI’s broadband mapping initiative, which aims to put existing metrics into context and provide decision-makers with actionable intelligence. By harnessing the power of cloud computing, TPI’s broadband map allows users to seamlessly combine datasets and arrive at insights that would have been impossible to glean from a single source.

TPI’s Senior Fellows on Building the Ideal Broadband Map

Stan is a Senior Consultant with Charles River Associates. He's a nationally recognized expert in the economics of intellectual property rights, telecommunications policy, and telecommunications and computer standards. Stan has taught at Rice, Columbia, and the Georgetown University Law Center. And in government, he was a Brookings Economic Policy Fellow for the Office of Telecommunications Policy and the Executive Office of the President and Co-Director of the Network Inquiry Special Staff at the Federal Communications Commission. Prior to joining CRA, he was a Senior Economist at the Rand Corporation. 
Phil is a Senior Research Fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School. Phil has practiced communications and antitrust law in the government and private law firms for nearly five decades. In the Obama administration, he served as Senior Counselor to the FCC chairman. And before that, as Ambassador and US Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy. Earlier in his career, he was an antitrust prosecutor at the DOJ, where he was lead counsel for the US v. AT&T case, and also at the FTC, and he has been chief of three FCC bureaus.

Stan Besen & Phil Verveer on a Coasian Approach to Section 230 Reform

Today, we are delighted to have as our guest, Evan Kwerel, who is Senior Economic Advisor at the Federal Communications Commission. The impact of Evan's career at the FCC was recognized last year, when he was awarded the 2021 Paul Volcker Career Achievement Award for pioneering the use of spectrum auctions. To get an idea of what Evan has accomplished and to introduce the discussion, let me read the first couple of paragraphs from the citation. 
“During more than three decades as a Federal Communications Commission economist, Evan Kwerel has been a key driver of America’s wireless revolution, establishing the first-ever competitive auctions to allocate public airwaves for the transmission of sound, data, and video across the country while raising billions of dollars for the government.
The market-based FCC auctions of electromagnetic spectrum, the radio frequencies that carry voices between cell phones, television shows from broadcasters and online information from one computer to the next, were conceived and implemented by Kwerel based on many of the theories of 2020 Nobel Prize-winning economists Paul Milgrom and Bob Wilson.
Since the early 1990s, a total of 107 FCC spectrum auctions have generated more than $200 billion in revenue for the government.
After winning the Nobel Prize, Milgrom wrote that ‘Evan’s individual contributions were so major that it would have been appropriate for him to share this prize.’”

Evan Kwerel on the Origins of Spectrum Auctions

Jennifer Fauver joins Two Think Minimum to discuss her new research paper entitled, “Putting a Number on the Debate: An Empirical Assessment of the U.S. Federal Antitrust Enforcement by State Attorneys General.” The article focuses on the enduring debate regarding the appropriate role for State AGs in federal antitrust enforcement. She adds to the empirical legal studies literature with a novel dataset of antitrust enforcement by state attorneys general from the last twenty years. She provides a cost-benefit analysis of State AG enforcement institutions. Jenn has more than 20 years of experience in law and economics, having worked for NERA Economic Consulting in antitrust litigation. She is a recent graduate of George Mason’s Antonin Scalia Law School and headed off to private practice at Wilson Sonsini this fall.

Jennifer Fauver on Antitrust Enforcement by State AGs

Cathryn Ross is Strategy and Regulatory Affairs Director at Thames Water. She is responsible for shaping and embedding a strategy to ensure that Thames Water delivers for customers, communities and the environment. She is an experienced regulatory and competition economist and has worked across a number of different sectors advising on economic, regulatory and competition issues.

Cathryn Ross on the Regulatory Horizons Council and Re-Imagining Regulation

AI and Tech in Europe with European Parliament’s  Peter Brown

Freedom of Speech in the Digital Age with Professor Jeff Kosseff

On the most recent episode of TPI's podcast "Two Think Minimum," Dr. Meicen Sun, assistant professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign joined TPI's Scott Wallsten to discuss her research on the effects of a country's decision to control international internet traffic. She finds that China's Great Firewall has helped increase profits of Chinese firms, but at the cost of reducing research quality as scientific collaboration and connections wither. This result presents a dilemma for autocrats if they try to balance short-term and long-term effects.

An Autocrat's Dilemma: Boosting Domestic Business Profits at the Expense of Research Quality

The journey to implementing spectrum auctions was not without its challenges. Evan Kwerel shed light on the initial resistance, particularly from the broadcasting industry and legislators. Concerns about market concentration and the potential costs of spectrum use were at the forefront of the debate. Despite these hurdles, the need for government revenue and the inefficiency of the existing system for cellular licenses were catalysts for change.

Paul Milgrom provided a fascinating comparison between the United States and other countries. He noted the fragmented nature of the industry abroad and the various tactics used to suppress auction prices. In contrast, the U.S. wireless companies were less resistant, which played a part in the smoother implementation of spectrum auctions stateside.

Airwaves of Innovation: Milgrom & Kwerel on the Past and Future of Spectrum Auctions

Growing Threats to Wireless Communications and How to Address Them

The latest episode of the TPI Two Think Minimum podcast featured guest Megan McArdle, discussing pressing issues at the intersection of technology and society. The podcast covered several topics related to technology, policy, and societal impact, emphasizing the need for careful consideration of the implications of technological advancements and regulatory actions. Key topics included the proposed U.S. legislation to ban or force a sale of TikTok over national security concerns, the biases detected in Google's AI system Gemini that favored certain political perspectives, and the broader societal adjustments that may be required as AI transforms various industries and jobs.

Navigating Technological Change: TikTok, AI Bias, and Societal Adjustments with Megan McArdle

FTC Actions on Antitrust Reforms with Ginger Jin and Liad Wagman

In this episode of Two Think Minimum, Caroline Cecot, an associate professor of law at Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, talks about her recent article "The Meaning of ‘Silence.’" The discussion focuses on the potential consequences of narrowing the applicability of the Chevron doctrine and consequences on the major questions doctrine. She discusses the broader implications of overruling or limiting Chevron deference and the role of cost-benefit analysis in agency decision-making and the effect of the composition and views of the Supreme Court on administrative law issues.

Congressional Silence, Agency Power, and the Chevron Doctrine with Caroline Cecot

In this episode of Two Think Minimum, MIT Professor Catherine Tucker discusses her research on competition policy and artificial intelligence. The discussion focuses on how AI's unique cost structures differs from that of traditional digital economics, how economists think about AI, and the implications of AI for competition policy and antitrust enforcement. Tucker explains that the current high fixed and marginal costs in AI are likely temporary, and that it's difficult to predict which firms will succeed in the AI industry. She also highlights the challenges AI poses for antitrust enforcement, such as the potential lack of "hot docs," the need for greater technical expertise among regulators, and the importance of understanding the role of data and algorithms in competition analysis.

Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Competition Policy with Catherine Tucker

In this episode of Two Think Minimum, Ellen P. Goodman, a distinguished professor of law at Rutgers Law School and former Senior Advisor for Algorithmic Justice at NTIA, U.S. Department of Commerce discusses artificial intelligence accountability policy. The podcast revolves around the NTIA AI Accountability Policy Report, which was released in March 2024, which Goodman was the principal author of. Goodman shares insights into the process of gathering and analyzing public comments for the report, the 
challenges of defining accountability in the context of AI, and the 
complexities of establishing standards in a rapidly evolving field. The conversation also touches on the potential impact of AI on labor markets, the role of auditors in ensuring AI accountability, and the government's own use of AI technology. Goodman concludes by discussing her current research on AI and copyright issues, particularly the copyrightability of AI-generated outputs.

AI Accountability Policy with Ellen P. Goodman

The Economics of AI: Prediction Machines and Their Impact with Ajay Agrawal

On the latest episode of Two Think Minimum, TPI hosts Tom Lenard, Sarah Oh Lam, and Scott Wallsten explore the world of polls and prediction markets with Aristotle CEO John Phillips and General Counsel David Mason. Aristotle helps run PredictIt, a platform which enables research into how markets can forecast events in real-time. The conversation covers how PredictIt is navigating CFTC regulation, the broad value of small-dollar prediction markets to understanding public opinion and risk forecasting, and how PredictIt determines which questions to create contracts for. This episode offers valuable insights for anyone interested in the intersection of market dynamics, public opinion, and data-driven insights.

The Politics of Prediction Markets: John Phillips and David Mason

In this episode of Two Think Minimum, Nicolas Petit, Chair in Competition Law at the European University Institute, joins hosts Tom Lenard, Scott Wallsten, and Sarah Oh Lam to explore the pressing challenges facing European competitiveness. Drawing insights from the recent Draghi Report, Petit discusses Europe's innovation gaps, the role of big tech, and the critical policy shifts needed to secure the region's economic future.

European Innovation and Competitiveness with Nicolas Petit

Stablecoin Policy and the Future of Crypto with Christian Catalini

On the latest episode of Two Think Minimum, Gordon Crovitz, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of NewsGuard joins hosts Tom Lenard, Sarah Oh Lam, and Scott Wallsten to discuss the evolving landscape of news credibility, misinformation, and the role of media ratings. They discuss NewsGuard’s approach to assessing news sources, the controversies surrounding its ratings, and the broader implications of government involvement in media regulation.

Future of News Ratings and Media Trust with NewsGuard CEO Gordon Crovitz

Little Tech, Big Challenges: Competing in the AI Era with Matt Perault

William Kovacic and Jon Nuechterlein on Agency Independence and Humphrey's Executor

Rewriting the Rules: Antitrust and the FTC with Jonathan M. Barnett and Larry White

Welcome to a special edition of Two Think Minimum, the podcast of the Technology Policy Institute. This podcast is a replay of our August 18th panel discussion on antitrust policy from the 2025 TPI Aspen Forum. The panel covers Biden to Trump 2 asking whether antitrust traded expertise for populism, they hit mergers versus monopolization, politicization, content moderation, fights, and whether any of this will actually stick. The discussion was moderated by TPI President Emeritus and Senior Fellow Tom Lenard, and featured Dennis Carlton from the University of Chicago, Carl Shapiro from UC Berkeley, Howard Shelanski from Georgetown Law, and Christopher Yoo from the University of Pennsylvania.



2025 TPI Aspen Forum: Current Developments in Antitrust Policy

Inside the NIH w/ Jay Bhattacharya on Innovation, Replication, and mRNA Policy

Today we're excited to talk with Victoria Graham. She is an antitrust and corporate crime reporter for Bloomberg Law in Washington, covering news and trends with the Justice Department, Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Federal Trade Commission. Victoria’s antitrust coverage also extends into private litigation matters including antitrust suits against the NCAA and employee class actions involving employer no poach agreements. Ms. Graham received her B.A. in media studies and government from the University of Virginia.

Victoria Graham on Antitrust and Corporate Crime Journalism

Podcast of the Technology Policy Institute of Washington, D.C. 

The Technology Policy Institute is a think tank that focuses on the economics of innovation, technological change, and related regulation in the United States and around the world. Our mission is to advance knowledge and inform policymakers by producing independent, rigorous research and by sponsoring educational programs and conferences on major issues affecting information technology and communications policy.

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