Research by Warrington faculty receives Antitrust Writing Award

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Assistant Professor Jingchuan Pu and John B. Higdon Eminent Scholar Chair Hsing Kenneth Cheng’s paper has been awarded this year’s Antitrust Writing Award.

After receiving its nomination at the beginning of the year, Pu and Cheng’s paper, “Impact of Own Brand Product Introduction on Optimal Pricing Models for Platform and Incumbent Sellers,” was selected by experts for the award.

“We are thrilled that our paper is the winner of the 2024 Antitrust Writing Awards: Academic Articles, General Economics, Readers’ Choice category,” Pu and Cheng said. “This decision is the result of a three-month process involving 60 international antitrust experts and 600 articles that have been reviewed. The recognition indicates that our study is widely noticed by practitioners and scholars from the business, antitrust law and economics fields.”

Addressing congressional concerns about fair competition on online platforms, Pu and Cheng’s research analyzes potential solutions for small businesses being routed by e-commerce platforms like Amazon that have launched their own brands. Some politicians have suggested restricting platforms from participating in a marketplace that they facilitate, but Pu and Cheng discovered that such extremes may not be the best solution.

“The key findings of this research are that the platform’s own brand introduction does not always hurt the incumbent sellers and, more importantly, the proposed regulation does not necessarily help the incumbents,” Pu and Cheng said. “The antitrust regulators must take into account the platforms’ strategic reactions to the proposed legislation in order for the policy to be effective.”

This study is among the first to help antitrust policymakers understand the impact of e-commerce platforms’ marketplace decisions on incumbent sellers and the effects of policies on platforms and sellers. Its clear assessment of the controversial issue made it stand out among other nominees.

The Antitrust Writing Awards promote competition scholarship by selecting the best articles published in antitrust or law and economics fields. They are organized by the George Washington University and Concurrences, an independent legal publisher dedicated to antitrust law and competitive economics. Articles are nominated by Concurrences’ editorial committee of renowned professionals and made available to the public for conclusive selection.