Publications

  • The Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission Merger Guidelines (the “Merger Guidelines”), including the latest proposed revision in 2023 (the “New Merger Guidelines”), have continued to perpetrate what we call in this paper the horizontal merger efficiency fallacy. The fallacy arises because in the Guidelines the term “efficiencies” has become unmoored from its foundations in economic theory and has been reduced to the business school construct of cost savings. We show that cost savings can only be considered universally socially beneficial by acceptance of what is termed “the consumer welfare standard” (antitrust) or “the surplus theory of welfare” (economics), a theory that has been discredited and abandoned by welfare economists. In economic theory, efficiency means Pareto efficiency. We explore the various attempts to tether the cost savings definition of efficiency to Pareto efficiency and explain why these attempts have failed. We conclude that there is no sound way to theoretically reconcile cost savings with the economic meaning of efficiencies. We then move beyond the efficiency fallacy and show how modern welfare economics can be used to integrate congressional antitrust goals into the New Merger Guidelines. This requires abandoning the unsupported “standard deduction” for efficiencies and replacing it with an evidence-based assessment of how a specific merger under review potentially impacts congressional antitrust goals. This change renders the present efficiency rebuttal section of the New Merger Guidelines superfluous, and we provide specific reasons why this section as currently drafted is flawed and should be jettisoned.. Accepted, 03/2024.
  • Pavitra Govindan (2024). Effect of Moderate and Radical Rules on High-Caste Behavior and Norms in India . The World Bank Economic Review. Published, 01/2024.
  • Matthew Linford, Pavitra Govindan & et al. (2023). Perspective on improving the quality of surface and material data analysis in the scientific literature with a focus on X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology A. Accepted, 03/07/2023.
  • Pavitra Govindan, Eunbin Chung & Anna Pechenkina (2022). The Effect of Incentives on Motivated Numeracy Amidst COVID-19. Journal of Experimental Political Science. Published, 03/2022.
  • Pavitra Govindan (2022). How do informal norms affect rule compliance: Experimental evidence. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics. Vol. 96. Published, 02/01/2022.
    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/...
  • Pavitra Govindan, Eunbin Chung, Anna Pechenkina (2021). The Effect Of Incentives On Motivated Numeracy Amidst COVID-19. Journal of Experimental Political Science. Accepted, 01/04/2021.

Research Keywords

  • Laboratory or Field Experiments, Behavioral Economics, Applied Game Theory, Development Economics
  • Experimental Economics and Finance

Presentations

  • Appalachian State University, Experimental Economics Workshop. Invited Talk/Keynote, Accepted, 12/2023.
  • Do women shy away from being evaluated against men? The role of non-transparent institutions . Conference Paper, Presented, 10/2023.
  • Explaining the gender gap in self-promotion: labor market discrimination and social norm at the North American Economic Science Association Conference, Santa Barbara. Conference Paper, Presented, 11/2022.
  • Explaining the gender gap in self-promotion: labor market discrimination and social norm at the Behavioral Economics Research Workshop, University of Utah. Presentation, Presented, 11/2022.
  • Gender and Labor, Southern Economic Association Conference. Conference Paper, Presented, 11/2021.
  • Do Meritocracies Increase Females Selecting Into Male-dominated Environments? in Behavioral Research Workshop, University of Utah. Presentation, Presented, 09/2021.
  • Explaining the gender gap in self-promotion: labor market discrimination and social norms An Experimental Design in the Behavioral Research Workshop, University of Utah. Presentation, Presented, 04/2021.
  • Explaining the gender gap in self-promotion: labor market discrimination and social norms, Presented at the University of Utah Laboratory of Experimental Economics and Finance. Presentation, Presented, 10/2020.
  • Utah Experimental Conference, 2020 (Utah State University). Presentation, Presented, 05/2020.
  • Science of Diversity Initiative, University of Chicago. Presentation, Presented, 10/15/2019.
    http://sodi.org/2019-convening/
  • Economics Science Association Conference, Los Angeles. Presentation, Presented, 10/11/2019.
    https://sites.google.com/view/esa2019la/program?au...
  • Warwick Summer School in Behavioral Economics, Venice. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 09/13/2019.
    https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/bridges/summer...
  • Utah Experimental Economics Conference, 2019. Presentation, Presented, 05/17/2019.
    https://www.growthopportunity.org/events/2019-utah...
  • Economic Science Association Conference, Antigua, Guatemala. Presentation, Presented, 10/19/2018.
  • Norms and Behavioral Change Conference, University of Pennsylvania. Presentation, Presented, 10/12/2018.
  • Science of Diversity Initiative, University of Chicago. Presentation, Presented, 09/11/2018.
  • Department of Economics, University of Utah. Presentation, Presented, 01/30/2018.
  • Experimental Economics Workshop, Utah State University. Presentation, Presented, 11/17/2017.
  • Economic Theory Seminar, Brown University. Presentation, Presented, 11/09/2017.
  • Economic Science Association Conference, Richmond, Virginia. Presentation, Presented, 10/14/2017.
  • Applied Microeconomics Seminar, Brown University. Presentation, Presented, 10/10/2017.
  • School of Philanthropy Initiative, University of Chicago. Presentation, Presented, 09/07/2017.
  • Philosophy, Political Science and Economics Group, University of Pennsylvania. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 02/09/2017.

Grants, Contracts & Research Gifts

  • Explaining the gender gap in self-promotion: labor market discrimination and social norm. PI: Pavitra Govindan. VPR Research Incentive Seed Grant, University of Utah, 04/01/2023 - 03/31/2024. Total project budget to date: $10,760.00
  • Case Against Efficiencies in Horizontal Merger Reviews. PI: Pavitra Govindan. Institute of New Economic Thinking, 01/01/2023 - 12/31/2023. Total project budget to date: $39,900.00

Research/Scholarship Projects

  • Gender Barriers to Entry: Endogenous Team Formations. PI: Pavitra Govindan. Co-PI(s): Elena Asparouhova, Subhasish Dugar. 02/01/2019 - present.
  • How do gender norms affect gender differences in preference to compete? PI: Pavitra Govindan. Co-PI(s): Georgios Angelis. 01/01/2019 - present.
  • Inequality and Risk-taking Behavior. PI: Pavitra Govindan. Co-PI(s): Jeongbin Kim. 01/01/2019 - present.
  • Effect of Formal Rules on Caste Norms: Lab-in-the-Field Experiment in India. PI: Pavitra Govindan. 11/01/2016 - present. Nugget: Manuscript(with Author Details).pdf
  • How do group norms affect individuals’ compliance with rules? PI: Pavitra Govindan. 10/01/2015 - present. Nugget: GroupNorms_FormalRules_Manuscript.pdf

Languages

  • English, fluent.
  • Hindi, fluent.
  • Tamil, fluent.

Geographical Regions of Interest

  • India
  • United States of America