Issues

Since airline deregulation in the 1970s, the U.S. airline industry has consolidated into an oligopoly, forcing travelers to deal with limited options and poor service while the industry seeks bailouts and public support after major crises. VPA offers ideas for how policymakers can improve air travel.

VPA's work focuses on modernizing American banking regulation by building on what worked in the past—a public utility approach. 

In recent years, there has been a revival of competition policy in America, including landmark executive actions to institute a whole-of-government approach to competition. VPA contributes to this critical conversation by compiling new ideas in competition policy, drawing on original research, conversations with scholars and policy experts, and recommendations from organizations that work on competition and economic policy.

Our work on the Defense Production Act focuses on how policymakers can improve one of the federal government’s most important industrial policy tools and more effectively use the Act’s authorities to meet today’s biggest challenges.

Big tech and retail companies have long invested in building drone delivery networks. Now, with new laws quietly opening the door for rapidly expanded drone delivery, we may soon see many more drones flying around making deliveries. VPA’s work on regulating drone delivery offers policymakers tools to empower local communities and govern this new technology in the public interest.

VPA offers solutions to address the concentration of power in the AI industry through antimonopoly policies and measures to build public sector AI capacity.

Food deserts are a problem in both urban and rural communities. Some communities have taken action, creating public, co-op, or nonprofit grocery stores. VPA provides a guide for policymakers to understand the case for public grocery stores and the practicalities—and challenges—in implementing them.