Policy is hard... even for tech

This is a recording of a speech given by Benedict Evans at a joint Institute of Economic Affairs and Information Technology and Innovation Foundation conference called 'The Meaning of Competition: Assertive Antitrust Enforcement and The Digital Economy' on Thursday 4th November 2021. Benedict Evans has spent 20 years analysing mobile, media and technology, and worked in equity research, strategy, consulting and venture capital. Benedict is now an independent analyst. Mostly, that means trying to work out what questions to ask. Benedict writes about things he is trying to understand, and a weekly newsletter with over 160,000 subscribers, and gives presentations pulling together these ideas. In May 1946, Hayek delivered the seminal Stafford Little Lecture at Princeton University, laying out his influential ideas of competition as a rivalrous process by which information is discovered. Celebrating the 75th anniversary of the lecture, the conference reinvigorated Hayek’s legacy in these times of aggressive antitrust enforcement in the digital economy. Jointly organised by the Schumpeter Project on Competition Policy at the ITIF, and the IEA’s Regulatory Affairs Programme, we debated current conceptions and misconceptions of the meaning of competition in the digital era. The Institute of Economic Affairs is recognised as one of the most influential think tanks in the UK, and its history is closely associated with ideas of Friedrich A. Hayek. We are delighted to host our distinguished speakers and guests today. Founded in 2006, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) is the world’s top think tank for science and technology policy in the latest edition of the University of Pennsylvania’s authoritative Global Go To Think Tank Index. ITIF's mission is to formulate, evaluate, and promote policy solutions that accelerate innovation and boost productivity to spur growth, opportunity, and progress. Support the IEA on Patreon, where we give you the opportunity to directly help us continue producing stimulating and educational online content, whilst subscribing to exclusive IEA perks, benefits and priority access to our content https://patreon.com/iealondon   FOLLOW US: TWITTER - https://twitter.com/iealondon​​INSTAGRAM - https://www.instagram.com/ieauk/​​FACEBOOK - https://www.facebook.com/ieauk​​WEBSITE - https://iea.org.uk/