WASHINGTON—The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), the leading think tank for science and technology policy, today announced the launch of a new policy center to advance a modern approach to competition policy that elevates innovation to become a central concern for antitrust enforcement.
Named for economist Joseph Schumpeter—famous for articulating how “perennial gales of creative destruction” revolutionize capitalism from within—ITIF’s Schumpeter Project on Competition Policy holds an inaugural event Tuesday via webinar. An expert panel will discuss a new ITIF report spelling out the legal and analytical framework for a new approach to competition policy that moves beyond prevailing models.
“It’s time to modernize antitrust policy by recognizing that market power enables the investments in R&D that drive innovation, which in turn drives competition,” said Aurelien Portuese, director of antitrust and innovation policy at ITIF. “The policy debate about antitrust has been stuck at a crossroads for too long. On one side, a vocal group of populists advocate for an aggressive, retrograde approach to regulating competition. They assume anything ‘big’ is bad, so they want to crack down on market power almost categorically. On the other side are proponents of the consumer welfare standard, which is better but still too static. Antitrust policy needs to incorporate Schumpeter’s insights about the dynamic interplay between competition and innovation.”
ITIF’s new report spells out guiding principles for a new “dynamic antitrust” framework that moves beyond the prevailing “Chicago School”—which focuses on consumer welfare as the analytical frame of reference for antitrust enforcement—and rejects the populist “neo-Brandeisian” model, which focuses on market structure above all else, assuming big firms are inherently suspect.
Led by Portuese, ITIF’s Schumpeter Project will conduct legal and economic research, publish actionable policy analysis, and organize high-level discussions with leading scholars, antitrust enforcers, and policymakers. ITIF’s goal for the project is to reconceive antitrust policy in a new framework that links innovation to competition for the benefit of consumers, innovative companies, the economy, and society.
“Schumpeter understood the dynamics of innovation and competition a century ago. It is long past time to heed his advice in reforming antitrust policy,” said Portuese. “A key failing of both of the Chicago School and neo-Brandeisian model is that neither adequately appreciates or accounts for the central role that innovation plays in the economy—not just as the driving force behind productivity growth and societal progress, but also as a driver of competition in dynamic markets.”
