2025 – Secretariat

Litigating the Impact of Race: Lessons from SFFA v. U.S. Naval Academy

sherri@herrmann.com — Wed, 28 May 2025 11:59:59 +0000

The court concluded in this case, which plaintiff Students for Fair Admissions has appealed, that relying solely on a subset of the information that USNA considered in its holistic admissions reviews likely leads to overstated estimates of the impact of race and ethnicity on USNA’s admissions decisions. The ruling explores the bounds on the probative value of statistical evidence of discrimination.

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Understanding Difference-in-Differences and Choosing The Best Tool For Antitrust Economic Analyses

sherri@herrmann.com — Mon, 17 Mar 2025 20:05:04 +0000

Difference-in-Differences (DiD) analysis has been a popular method in econometrics for estimating causal effects and is often employed in antitrust litigation. The essence of DiD lies in comparing the changes in outcome variables of interest (e.g., price) over time between a group that is exposed to the alleged anticompetitive conduct and a control group that is not (e.g.

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PMFNs and Competition

sherri@herrmann.com — Mon, 17 Mar 2025 19:55:10 +0000

However, more generally, MFNs can also apply to vertical agreements between suppliers and buyers, where, for example, a seller promises a buyer that the buyer will always be offered the lowest price offered by the seller.2 While the exact details of these provisions differ by contract, parties, and setting, MFN clauses generally require that one party to the transaction not offer better…

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Quality Considerations in the Economic Analysis of Market Definition

sherri@herrmann.com — Mon, 17 Mar 2025 19:33:53 +0000

In Antitrust analysis in the United States, the Small but Significant Non-Transitory Increase in Price (“SSNIP”) test is often a key component of market definition analysis, whether performed quantitatively or qualitatively. In this analysis, an entity is hypothesized to be a monopolist with respect to a product or set of products that are under consideration to be a relevant market.

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Economic Lessons from the Novant Health CHS Drama

sherri@herrmann.com — Mon, 17 Mar 2025 17:38:38 +0000

In February 2023, Novant agreed to purchase Lake Norman Regional Medical Center (LNR) and Davis Regional Psychiatric Hospital (Davis) from CHS. Novant is one of the largest health systems in NC, operating multiple facilities across the state. On the other hand, CHS is a national for-profit health system, and the LNR and Davis facilities represent CHS’s most important assets in NC.

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Fall 2025

sherri@herrmann.com — Sun, 16 Mar 2025 18:58:35 +0000

Whether you are an economist, attorney, antitrust enthusiast, or just curious about Secretariat, we are glad you found us. This publication showcases insights from leading economists about recent developments in law and economics that may significantly impact the field of antitrust. This issue explores recent topics in the economics of antitrust analysis, with implications for merger analysis…

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News and Notes

sherri@herrmann.com — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 18:59:54 +0000

In Landmark United States v. Google Decision, Secretariat Experts Support Expert Witness on behalf of Successful US Plaintiffs. In the August 2024 landmark United States v. Google decision, Secretariat’s Antitrust team, led by Dr. Keith Waehrer, played a vital role in supporting the analysis and work of expert witness Dr. Kinshuk Jerath on behalf of the successful US plaintiffs.