A Nobel-winning economist’s guide to taming tech monopolies

Posted by Quartz

A Nobel-winning economist’s guide to taming tech monopolies

By Allison Schrager

Jean Tirole is an intellectual giant in the economics world. The Frenchman is the foremost thinker on market power and regulation, and won the Nobel prize in 2014 for his work in this area.

His insights are particularly relevant today, as large tech firms grow ever larger and more powerful. Advances in technology has mostly made our lives better, but as privacy concerns rise and fake news spreads, we are starting to see the downside of giving tech companies mostly unchecked power. In the past, regulators could deal with this by breaking up firms or making them public utilities. That hasn’t happened with the tech giants, even though many people and policymakers feel like something should be done—but what?

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