Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis - Senior Economist

NEW: Mass Production of Houses in Factories in the United States: The First and Only “Experiment” Was a Tremendous Success

Here is a Staff Report with co-authors Elena Falcettoni and Mark Wright; Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Staff Report 661 (September 2024).

NEW: “Learning from the first (and only) manufactured housing boom”

Here is an article by Jeff Horwich discussing my work on housing (February 28, 2025).

NEW: “Want Affordable Housing? Take the Chassis Off Manufactured Houses: And Don't Call Them Mobile Homes”

Here is my article with co-author Lee Ohanian in the Washington Post from May 21, 2024. 

NEW: The Profit Paradox: How Thriving Firms Threaten the Future of Work. By Jan Eeckhout.

Here is my book review published in "Book Reviews." Journal of Economic Literature, 60 (2): 639-48, 2022

NEW: A History of U.S. Factory-Built Housing: 100 Years Of Sabotage By Monopolies

Here are the slides from the talk I gave at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis on May 22nd, 2023

Telegram from Thurman Arnold to Henry Simons, see end of page

Recent Research on Monopoly:

1. ***Working Paper*** 

“Monopolies Inflict Great Harm on Low- and Middle-Income Americans,” Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Staff Report 601 (May 2020). 

Short essays written by myself and colleagues related to "Great Harm": 

"Monopolies: Silent Spreaders of Poverty and Economic Inequality," co-authored with David Fettig for Promarket.org, the publication of the Stigler Center at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business; Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Staff Report 772 (September 2020).

"Solving the Housing Crisis Will Require Fighting Monopolies in Construction," to discuss some of the policy lessons from "Great Harm" in a more accessible form; Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Staff Report 773 (December 2020).

"Achieving Affordable Housing Will Require Fighting Monopolies in Construction," with David Fettig. This essay is related to the above, though significantly shorter.

"Because of Monopolies, Income Inequality Significantly Understates Economic Inequality," Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Staff Report 777 (March 2021).

What others have written about "Great Harm": 

David Levine's summary:

"Monopoly: The modern field of industrial organization seems to have spent decades chasing itself into smaller and smaller circles while the real and serious problems of monopoly go ignored. James A. Schmitz, Jr. is trying to remedy this with his monumental indictment of modern monopoly: read his book Monopolies Inflict Great Harm on Low- and Middle-Income Americans."

John Cochrane's: Schmitz on Monopoly 

Timothy Taylor's: Sabotaging the Competition: A Home Construction Example

"Schafer: Minneapolis Fed Economist Explains How Modern Monopolies Hurt Workers," Star Tribune (April 2021)

2. “New and Larger Costs of Monopoly and Tariffs,” Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Staff Report 468 (July 2012).

3.  The Costs of Monopoly: A New View, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Region (July 2016).

4. “How the U.S. Dental Monopoly Created the U.S. Oral-Health Crisis,” with Shi Qi.

(paper coming soon)

Here are some slides from a talk Schmitz gave at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago on Sept. 14, 2018.

5. “How HUD and NAHB Created the U.S. Housing Crisis,” with Arilton Teixeira and Mark Wright.

(paper coming soon)

Here are some slides from a talk Schmitz gave at the University of Minnesota, honoring Ed Prescott and creating a fellowship in his honor on Sept. 21, 2018.

6. “Notes on the Disturbing State of U.S. Antitrust Institutions.” 

         (paper coming in a few weeks)

Other Research on Monopoly:

1. “Monopoly and the Incentive to Innovate When Adoption Involves Switchover Disruptions,” (Lead article) with Thomas Holmes and David Levine, American Economic Journal — Microeconomics (August 2012).

2. “Competition and Productivity: A Review of Evidence,” (with Thomas Holmes), Annual Review in Economics (2010)

3. “What Determines Labor Productivity?: Lessons from the Dramatic Recovery of the United States and Canadian Iron-Ore Industries Following Their Ear 1980s Crisis,” Journal of Political Economy (June 2005).

4. “Competitive Pressure and Labor Productivity: World Iron-Ore Markets in the 1980’s,” (with Jose E. Galdon Sanchez), American Economic Review (Sept. 2002).

5. “Competition at Work: Railroads vs. Monopoly in U.S. Shipping,”(with Thomas Holmes), Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Quarterly Review (2001).

6. “Resistance to New Technology and Trade Between Areas,” (with Thomas Holmes) Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Quarterly Review 19.2 (Winter 1995).

Some Important Readings by Giants in the Study of Monopoly:

1. Simons, Henry Calvert. A Positive Program for Laissez Faire: Some Proposals for a Liberal Economic Policy. (1934).

2. Arnold, Thurman. Labor Against Itself. (1943)

Important Telegrams:

Telegram from Thurman Arnold to Henry Simons before Simons trip to Washington DC to work with Arnold in the Antitrust Division of the DOJ  (Source: Thurman Arnold papers at the American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming: Box 23, Folder 3.)