Today, we're delighted to have as our guest, Michael McConnell. If you've been following the news at all lately, you probably know Michael is co-chair of the Facebook Oversight Board, which last week published its decision in the case involving President Trump's access to Facebook following the January 6th riot at the Capitol. Michael is also the Richard and Francis Mallory Professor and Director of the Constitutional Law Center at the Stanford Law School and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. From 2002 to 2009, he served as Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. Michael has previously held chaired professorships at the University of Chicago and the University of Utah and visiting professorships at Harvard and NYU. He has published widely in the fields of constitutional law theory, has argued 15 cases in the US Supreme Court and served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice William Brennan and DC Circuit Court Judge J. Skelly Wright. He has been in an Assistant General Counsel of the OMD, where I had the pleasure of working with him on regulatory reform issues, and a member of the president's Intelligence Oversight Board.

Michael McConnell on Facebook's Oversight Board and Content Moderation

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

Dr. Clifford Winston is a senior fellow in the Brookings Institution's Economic Studies Program. He joined TPI Distinguished Senior Fellow Bob Hahn to discuss his book, "Gaining Ground: Markets Helping Government," which was published earlier this year by Brookings. This podcast is part of our special series on evidence-based policy.

Clifford Winston on Markets Helping Government

Dr. Larry White is the Robert Kavesh Professor of Economics at the NYU Stern School. He's also General Editor of the Review of Industrial Organization and the author of numerous articles and books on industrial organization, antitrust, general regulation, and financial & bank regulation. He has also held a number of senior government positions: Senior Staff Member of the Council of Economic Advisors, Member of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, and Chief Economist at the Antitrust Division at the Department of Justice.

Larry White on Antitrust & Market Delineation of Monopolization Cases

Catherine Tucker is the Sloan Distinguished Professor of Management Science, Professor of Marketing, Chair of the MIT Sloan Ph.D. Program, a co-founder of the MIT Cryptoeconomics Lab, which studies the applications of blockchain, and also a co-organizer of the Economics of Artificial Intelligence Initiatives sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Her research interests lie in how technology allows firms to use digital data and machine learning to improve performance, and in the challenges this poses for regulation. Professor Tucker has particular expertise in online advertising, digital health, social media, and electronic privacy. Her research studies the interface between marketing and the economics of technology and law. She holds a BA from the University of Oxford and a PhD in economics from Stanford University.

Catherine Tucker on Algorithmic Bias

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

Blair Levin is the Policy Advisor to New Street Research and a Senior Non-Resident Fellow at the Metropolitan Policy Project at the Brookings Institution. He also served as Chief of Staff to FCC Chairman Reed Hundt, directed the writing of the United States National Broadband Plan, where I worked for him, and was a Policy Analyst for the Equity Research Teams at Legg Mason and Stifel Nicolaus, in addition to many other activities. 

Gregory Rosston is the Gordon Cain Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research and Director of the Stanford Public Policy Program. He served as Deputy Chief Economist at the Federal Communications Commission, working on the implementation of the Telecommunications Act in 1996, and he helped design and implement the first-ever spectrum auction in the United States.

Blair Levin & Gregory Rosston on Broadband Subsidies

John List is the Kenneth C. Griffin Distinguished Service Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago. His research focuses on questions in microeconomics, with a particular emphasis on using field experiments to address both positive and normative issues. For decades his field experimental research has focused on issues related to the inner-workings of markets, the effects of various incentives schemes on market equilibria and allocations, how behavioral economics can augment the standard economic model, on early childhood education and interventions, and most recently on the gender earnings gap in the gig economy (using evidence from rideshare drivers).

John List on How to Make Good Ideas Great & Great Ideas Scale

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

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

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

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

Kip Viscusi is University distinguished professor at Vanderbilt with appointments in the economics department, the management school and the law school. He previously was Kogan professor of law and economics and director of the program on empirical studies at Harvard Law School and has held professorships at Northwestern and Duke. He is the author of more than 30 books and 370 articles and his most recent book is Pricing Lives: Guideposts for a Safer Society from Princeton University Press. Kip is a leading authority on benefit-cost analysis and is widely recognized for having done pioneering work on valuing risks to life and health and his estimates are currently used throughout the federal government.

Kip Viscusi on the Value of a Statistical Life and Coronavirus

Felipe Hoffa, developer advocate, and software engineer at Google. Felipe is originally from Chile and is now based in San Francisco and around the world. If you're involved in big data and data science, you may recognize him as a familiar name and face answering thousands of developer questions on stack overflow and Reddit, which are read by millions of programmers. For Google, he also records tutorial videos on YouTube, gives conference talks on big data, and writes blog posts on the latest developments in cloud tools. Phillipe is a leading voice on Google's cloud computing products.

Google Cloud Developer Advocate Felipe Hoffa

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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