This piece of news arrived just as I was rereading the paper while preparing a talk for the 𝗢𝗘𝗖𝗗-𝗘𝗖 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗽: 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁-𝗨𝗽 𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲-𝗨𝗽: 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗢𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀. More details on the workshop here: www.oecd.org/en/events/20...
Igor Letina
@igorletina.bsky.social
Associate professor, Uni Bern | Vice President, Swiss Competition Commission. Competition policy/IO, innovation economics, contest design. igorletina.com
Very happy to be part of this OECD workshop on start-ups’ ability to scale. If this topic interests you, take a look at the website to see the full speaker lineup and consider joining us online or in person. www.oecd.org/en/events/20...
From start-up to scale-up: Challenges and opportunities
This workshop explores key drivers that shape start-ups’ ability to scale. It examines how technology, access to funding, talent allocation, and market structures influence growth opportunities. The g...
oecd.org
Public service announcement: there is a number of submission deadlines for conferences in the next ~2 weeks. Get your papers ready.
Are there some tasks that it would be immoral to delegate to machines? #econsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/02/are-...
Are some applications of AI repugnant?
marketdesigner.blogspot.com
I had the pleasure of speaking with Chris for this piece on acquihires and the AI exit market. The evolving regulatory landscape raises important questions about competition, talent mobility, and how innovation gets rewarded. The article does a good job of laying out the key risks and trade-offs.
Chris Stokel-Walker@stokel.bsky.social · 6mo agoRegulators are cracking down on acquihires - so what happens to the calculations tech workers and founders make when setting up and joining a business? My latest for @fastcompany.com www.fastcompany.com/91484496/wha...
Planning your summer conference schedule? I've updated my conference list for 2026, with deadlines, dates, locations, and links. You can also download calendar entries. Focus is on general conferences, IO, and theory. Let me know if I've missed something. Link: www.igorletina.com/conferences....
FTC Chair Ferguson recently told Bloomberg that the FTC will review AI acquihires as they would any startup acquisition. This is exactly the approach @jmbenkert.bsky.social, Shuo Liu, and I argued for in a CPI Antitrust Chronicle article last month (links below). www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u_h...
FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson Talks Acquihires | Bloomberg Talks
YouTube video by Bloomberg Podcasts
youtube.com
We are happy to announce that the inaugural Bern/Linz Innovation & Knowledge (BLInK) Workshop will take place next week at the University of Bern. Many thanks to @igorletina.bsky.social and @jsndr.bsky.social for putting together a fantastic program.
*Killer Acquisitions* news: the French Competition Authority has for the first time sanctioned a non-notifiable killer acquisition. Source: www.clearygottlieb.com/news-and-ins...
I am delighted to share that Nobel laureates Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee will join our Department of Economics @econ.uzh.ch at the University of Zurich on July 1, 2026, as Lemann Foundation Professors of Economics. 🧵 1/7
Next was a jam-packed panel on the competition risks of AI acquihires with @florianederer.bsky.social, @lugaricano.bsky.social, @igorletina.bsky.social, @imarinescu.bsky.social, Hans Zenger, Jonathan Kanter, and @cristinacaffarra.bsky.social at the @cepr.org www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zrS... (4/7)
AI Acquihires: Competition Risks, Talent Battles and Economic Spillovers
YouTube video by CEPR & VideoVox Economics
youtube.com
Excited to moderate this panel on "AI Acquihires: Competition Risks, Talent Battles and Economic Spillovers" with the antitrust all-star team of Kanter, Garicano, Marinescu, Letina, and Zenger. Wednesday, 8 October 2025 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM (ET) Registration: cepr-org.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: AI Acquihires: Competition Risks, Talent Battles, and Economic Spillovers. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webina...
Antitrust agencies are increasingly confronted with “acquihires” of AI start-ups — yet most cases so far have been waved through under the banner of “uncertainty.” A decade ago, similar caution around...
cepr-org.zoom.us
Very happy to see two of my papers cited in the recent CMA report on "Investment and competition over the business lifecycle." The report provides an excellent overview of the literature. Thanks to @jschneebacher.bsky.social and coauthors for preparing it!
A new article in the WSJ on reverse acquihires. The main point it makes is that one group that loses out in a reverse acquihire are the employees who are left behind. This will make it more difficult for future startups to attract employees. www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-r...
Big Tech Is Eating Itself in Talent War
The scramble by tech companies for top AI talent is using unorthodox methods that imperil Silicon Valley’s startup culture.
wsj.com
Igor Letina@igorletina.bsky.social · 12mo agoA thread on "reverse acquihires" in the AI space. Reverse acquihires are characterized by two things: 1) the buyer takes over the most important/talented employees and 2) the buyer pays a hefty sum to the target firm via a side deal. They are becoming common in the AI space:
A person sends you an e-mail and you notice that it was written by chatgpt. How do you react? I don't know why, but I tend to have an instinctive negative reaction to it.
A thread on "reverse acquihires" in the AI space. Reverse acquihires are characterized by two things: 1) the buyer takes over the most important/talented employees and 2) the buyer pays a hefty sum to the target firm via a side deal. They are becoming common in the AI space:
One thing I have not seen mentioned in the discussion about compensation packages for AI engineers is that firms are willing to pay not just for what value those employees bring to them, but also for the value that their competitors lose. In a sense, firms are partly trying to *hoard AI talent* 1/2
Meta Poached Apple’s Pang With Pay Package Over $200 Million
Meta Platforms Inc. has made unusually high compensation offers to new members of its “superintelligence” team — including a more than $200 million package for a former Apple Inc. distinguished engine...
bloomberg.com
I've been working on a new tool, Refine, to make scholars more productive. If you're interested in being among the very first to try the beta, please read on. Refine leverages the best current AI models to draw your attention to potential errors and clarity issues in research paper drafts. 1/
Gems you find while reading about past inducement prizes/innovation contests: in 1936, Polish mathematician Stanisław Mazur offered a live goose to whoever solved one mathematical problem involving Banach spaces. 37 years later, Swedish mathematician Per Enflo got the goose.
PSA: The special topic of this year's South Carolina Game Theory Conference is *Advances in Contest Theory*. The conference takes place on August 6-7, 2025 and the application deadline is May 16, 2025. Link: sites.google.com/view/thescgt...
TheSCGTConference2025
South Carolina Game Theory Conference
sites.google.com
I have a postdoc position in Behavioral/Experimental Economics available for 6 years, at the oldest university in Germany in beautiful Heidelberg. Please forward to anyone who might be interested! #EconJobs #AcademicJobs #HigherEd #Economics #JobAlert
One of the best conferences for those working on contests is going to Australia this year! Submission deadline is June 1, 2025 and more info can be found here: www.rmit.edu.au/about/school...
So it seems that my colleague Jean-Michel Benkert is too modest to mention it himself, but I think it is a great thing that he has accepted to be an arXiv moderator for economics. Thanks for providing the public good, @jmbenkert.bsky.social!
Letzten Monat hielt Edward Glaeser an der Universität Bern einen Vortrag zum Thema «Cities and Infrastructure». Dieses Interview mit ihm erörtert die wichtigsten Themen seines Vortrags. www.derbund.ch/uni-bern-us-...
Wohnen in der Stadt: «Bauen ist die einzige Medizin, um der Wohnungsnot zu begegnen»
Bezahlbare Wohnungen gebe es in jenen US-Städten, die den Wohnungsmarkt am wenigsten regulierten, sagt Ökonom Edward Glaeser.
derbund.ch
Planning your 2025 economics conference schedule? I've updated my list of general interest, IO, and theory conferences: www.igorletina.com/conferences.... New this year: you can generate a calendar file 📅 to easily track dates and submission deadlines of selected conferences. #econsky
The deadline for applications is January 31, 2025.
Vince Crawford@vincecrawford.bsky.social · 2y agoI am pleased to announce the second EER Summer School in Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 3-6 June 2025 at LUISS oin Rome, with Colin Camerer, Michalis Drouvelis, Catherine Eckel, and myself as instructors. Information at www.eersummerschool.org
