Weekly Writers Round-Up: Internet Competition, Occupational Licensing, and University Funding

Each week, we’ll be featuring the work of the alumni and current participants of AF’s Writing Fellows Program. A few highlights from the past week are below. For more information on the program, see here. Applications for the fall session are now open!

Congress Quietly Seeks to Help States Fix Occupational Licensing Headaches by Jared Meyer (Spring 2015) in Washington Examiner
After several years of failed occupational licensing reforms at the federal level, Congress passed the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act last week with overwhelming support. The bill marks the first step towards comprehensive reform, and given the Trump administration’s support of licensing reform, governors may soon have new resources available to reduce burdensome occupational licensing regulations across the country…

New Research Shows the Downsides of Scrapping Tax Havens by Jorge González-Gallarza (Summer 2018) in The Hill
Generally analyzed through the lens of tax collection, a country’s creation of a tax haven within its borders is universally deemed lousy policy. Domestic firms use them to shift profits to affiliates where a lower rate applies and thus reduce their company-wide effective corporate tax rate, with the new job and investment gains concentrated in the lower-rate jurisdiction generally not enough to make up for the loss in revenue from profit-shifting.However, a working paper by Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato of Duke may be about to spark afterthoughts about stylized models like these that have long informed efforts to tame profit-shifting in successive reforms of our corporate tax code…

What More Funding for State Universities Buys Students by Preston Cooper (Fall 2015) in National Review
New research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston finds “strong evidence” that public universities raise tuition in response to state funding cuts. But as economists are loath to remind us, strong evidence is not the same thing as a strong effect. In fact, this latest research is more evidence that the effects of state-budget cuts on tuition are surprisingly weak…

Can One-Touch Make-Ready Increase Broadband Competition? by Pranjal Drall (Summer 2018) in RCR Wireless News
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is set to adopt the long-awaited “One-Touch Make-Ready” (OTMR) regulatory framework today that will allow new entrants in the telecommunication industry to seamlessly attach new equipment to utility poles. In the past, an onerous process known as “make-ready” has delayed deployment for entrants, allowing incumbents to effectively avoid competition. The OTMR regime will accelerate broadband buildout for new entrants and allow them to compete, giving consumers more options and cutting costs…