As President Trump takes office for the second time, a pressing question will be how to handle the Biden administration’s legacy of targeting large businesses. In 2021, President Biden issued an executive order on competition, launching an all-of-government effort to reverse, or at least stay, a century-long trend: the rising share of national output produced by large firms. The administration argued that this industry concentration leads to higher prices, reduced quality, fewer market entrants, and lower wages. It promised to stop this trend through stricter merger policies, new regulations on business practices, aggressive investigations, and price controls.

However, my recent research with Jakub Tecza shows this strategy rests on flawed assumptions and risks producing the very outcomes it seeks to avoid.

Read my complete take at AEI.