If you’re hooked (like us) on Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader, you’ve probably noticed that book prices have gone up a bit since Amazon caved into most publishers’ demands that the giant retailer work on commission – so called agency pricing – rather than setting its own prices. The publishers’ logic seems a bit of a stretch: they worry that Amazon’s preference for pricing low to build market share would undermine the traditional book business, and ultimately create monopsony power for the e-book retailers. Looks a lot like predatory pricing models – models that look OK until you do focus on how, in practice, the predator could ever hope to make a buck on the deal. Check out Brookings economist Donald Marron’s analysis for a hard look at the issue in antitrust terms.
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E-Book Wars |
Professor Dieter Helm (Oxford) is a very fine fly fisherman, and an even better economist. If you haven’t done so, take a look at his new book “The Carbon Crunch: How We Are Getting Climate Change Wrong — and How to Fix It” for a bit of unconventional wisdom. He argues that politicians and the general public have not shown any real interest in addressing climate change. Helm argues that places like Europe should focus on setting a price for carbon that would cover consumption (and not just production), and that fracking could be a good “bridge” technology for reducing consumption of coal. The book is readable and insightful for those interested in the inside track on climate policy. 
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