With sharply rising US inflation prompting debate about the potential role of powerful firms in driving up prices and whether antitrust interventions and/or price controls may be an effective policy response, the IGM Forum at Chicago Booth invited its panel of leading economists to express their views.

As this column reports, few think that dominant corporations in uncompetitive markets are a significant factor in rising prices; and asked whether antitrust interventions could reduce inflation, more than four in five experts disagree. A smaller majority disagrees with the proposition that 1970s-style price controls could reduce inflation, but even those who say that they might work don't necessarily think that reintroducing them should actually happen.

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25 February 2022

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VoxEU

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https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/inflation-market-power-and-price-controls-views-leading-economists

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