FTC's Joshua Wright Lectures at Clemson on April 2

Federal Trade Commissioner Joshua D. Wright presented a Big Ideas About Information lecture on April 2, 2015, at Clemson University. Sponsored by the Information Economy Project and the John E. Walker Department of Economics, Commissioner Wright spoke on Regulation in High-Tech Markets: Public Choice, Regulatory Capture, and the FTC.

A prolific scholar in law and economics, Joshua Wright was appointed to the Federal Trade Commission by President Obama in January 2013. Commissioner Wright's lecture focused on the tendency for regulatory regimes to frustrate technological innovation. An example is the tax industry, heavily regulated for almost a century. For reasons familiar to students of public choice economics, many taxi regulators have been captured by their industry's participants. This has led some cities to frustrate competitive entry by Uber, Lyft and other innovators that use new media to disrupt existing markets, ignoring consumer welfare. Commissioner Wright will address how antitrust law and the Federal Trade Commission can improve outcomes in such instances.

You can watch and listen to Commissioner Wright's "Big Ideas About Information" lecture and his question-and-answer session below, as well as view the transcript here.