Business

PIK Professor Herbert Hovenkamp commented on states’ involvement in antitrust lawsuits against tech giants. “It’s ... not because the federal government isn’t doing enough,” he said. The states “want to get in the action, too.”

Prasanna Tambe of the Wharton School is contributing to research on how workers adapt when their specific skills are no longer in high demand.

Brian Berkey of the Wharton School commented on major retailers’ efforts to curb gun and ammunition sales. “Part of what explains what we’ve been seeing, both after Parkland and with the Walmart case now, is that more people who are in favor of things like greater gun control, who want companies to take steps to limit access to guns and ammunition ... are actually more focused on these issues,” he said. “Because of that, companies are feeling the need to respond in a way that they haven’t in the past.”

Joseph Turow of the Annenberg School for Communication and David Bell of the Wharton School spoke about the use of retail promotions to acquire customer data.

Larry Hamermesh of the Law School rebutted claims that companies are legally required to prioritize shareholder returns. “The most frustrating thing I ever hear is when someone says that a board of directors can’t do things that are attuned to sustainability under the current legal system,” he said. “They can. There is nothing in the law that precludes this.”

Americus Reed II of the Wharton School joined a discussion about social-media-based boycotts. “Expressing this sort of moral outrage on Twitter is a very different idea than actually canceling your membership and inconveniencing yourself,” he said.

Christopher Yoo of the Law School said Huawei is considered a threat to U.S. national security because “the Chinese government is widely thought to exercise considerable influence over Huawei.”

Barbara Kahn of the Wharton School attributed mall closures in part to the loss of key anchor stores, such as Macy’s. Others have managed to survive by rebranding as mixed-use developments, she said.

A program sponsored by the Netter Center for Community Partnerships and the Wharton School is working with local youth to promote financial literacy and entrepreneurship.

Santiago Gallino of the Wharton School spoke about the practical problems with personalized and demand-based dynamic pricing structures in retail settings. “Say you end up buying a video game for three times the regular price, and then you want to return it,” he said. “You show up in January and they are going to give you three times the regular price of a product that now they cannot sell for that?”