Julie Carlson

Associate Director, Schumpeter Project on Competition Policy
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @julieinannap
Julie Carlson is associate director of ITIF’s Schumpeter Project on Competition Policy. Her work focuses on advancing a dynamic framework for competition policy in which innovation is a central concern for antitrust enforcement. As an expert in competition and innovation policy, Julie has published on these issues in academic journals, presented her research at academic conferences, and participated in expert panels.
Prior to joining the ITIF, Julie worked for 14 years in the Bureau of Economics at the Federal Trade Commission where she assisted with anticompetitive conduct investigations of technology firms, participated in agency advocacy, and contributed to agency reports including the FTC report on patent assertion entity activity. During her time at the FTC, she also severed as an advisor to the director of the Bureau of Economics, Chairman Joseph Simons, and Commissioner William Kovacic. Before joining the FTC, Julie was an assistant professor of economics at Trinity University in San Antonio, TX. She received her Ph.D. in economics from Michigan State University.
Research Areas:
Recent Publications
The Meteoric Rise (and Fall) of Lina Khan
Lina Khan has championed a more aggressive, populist approach to antitrust enforcement, which would have posed real risks to innovation and economic growth. Yet, at her one-year anniversary as chair, the antitrust revival she promised appears to have fizzled.
Withdrawal of Antitrust Guidance on SEP Enforcement Is Nothing to Cheer About
By withdrawing the 2019 statement in its entirety, SEP-holders have only the guidance provided by the FTC’s prior enforcement actions—which is to say they have no guidance at all.
Everything Old Is New Again: The Misleading Narrative About Concentration and Inflation
Not only is more aggressive antitrust enforcement likely to be ineffective at combatting inflation, some economists have argued that it may even make inflation worse.
Why In-App Payments Make Sense, And the Open App Markets Act Does Not
The OAMA threatens the vibrancy of the app ecosystem. The Senate should not attempt to fix an app ecosystem that is not broken.
Monopolies Are Not Taking a Fifth of Your Wages
A recent Treasury report on labor market competition provided a misleading narrative about labor market concentration and its effect on workers. Labor market power is largely due to labor market frictions, not concentration. Firms are not profiting at the expense of workers.
Don’t Bite the Hand That Feeds You: Amazon’s Self-Preferencing Paradox
The American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA), which was voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee in January, ignores Amazon’s own interest in preserving the vitality of its third-party seller ecosystem.
We Should Not Allow China to Weaponize Antitrust for Theft of American Intellectual Property
Protecting American innovation is especially critical in an environment in which the military increasingly depends on dual-use technologies such as the memory products at issue in this transaction. We should not allow China to weaponize antitrust for theft of American intellectual property.
Comments to the Justice Department and FTC Regarding Merger Enforcement
In revising merger guidelines, antitrust agencies should refrain from embracing the populist narrative that pursues market deconcentration and corporate disintegration at the expense of companies’ innovation, efficiency, and competitiveness.
Open Letter to Speaker Pelosi and Minority Leader McCarthy Regarding National Security Concerns With Antitrust Bills
Hobbling U.S. superstar firms only makes Chinese firms more attractive to American consumers and limits these companies’ ability to make security-enhancing investments. Congress would do well to heed the advice of our national security experts and not sacrifice our economic and national security with misguided antitrust bills.
The Platform Competition and Opportunity Act Is a Solution in Search of a Problem
The killer acquisitions that Congress seeks to prevent are rare and less likely to occur in technology markets. The proposed legislation will harm an important incentive for start-up innovation and deny consumers the benefits of pro-competitive acquisitions.
Comments to the DOJ on Licensing Negotiations and Remedies for Standards-Essential Patents Subject to Voluntary F/RAND Commitments
The Draft Policy Statement is the wrong approach because it further weakens IP rights since the unavailability of injunctive relief tends to further shift away from the protection of patents from a property regime toward a liability regime. It also comes at the wrong time.
Senate Hearing Offers a Misguided Approach to Big Tech and Innovation
The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this afternoon on “The Impact of Consolidation and Monopoly Power on American Innovation” will likely, once again, focus on the misguided notion that large technology platforms are bad for small businesses, workers, consumers, and innovation.
Recent Events and Presentations
Dynamic Antitrust Discussion Series: Antitrust and Inflation
Please join ITIF for the lastest installment of the Dynamic Antitrust series, where Julie Carlson moderates a panel with antitrust and inflation experts to get their views on the relationship between corporate concentration and inflation.
Dynamic Antitrust Discussion Series: “Chief Economists’ Perspectives on Horizontal Merger Guidelines”
Please join ITIF for the latest in a series of discussions on “dynamic antitrust.” In this installment, Julie Carlson will sit down with former chief economists from the DOJ and FTC to discuss their views on the planned revisions to the guidelines.
Dynamic Antitrust Discussion Series: “Has Economic Concentration Really Increased?”
Join ITIF for a discussion on the accuracy of the narrative put forward and whether or not market concentration has, indeed, increased with ITIF's Julie Carlson & Robert D. Atkinson, Nicholas Trachter of the Federal Reserve of Richmond, & former DOJ official, Gregory Werden.
Dynamic Antitrust Discussion Series: “Innovation”
Join ITIF for the twelfth in a series of discussions on “dynamic antitrust,” in which Aurelien Portuese, ITIF’s director of antitrust and innovation policy, sits down with leading scholars and antitrust enforcers in Washington, Brussels, and elsewhere to discuss the path forward in making antitrust a foundation for innovation. Join us to discuss the interaction between antitrust and innovation with Professor Thomas Lambert and ITIF's Julie Carlson.