Airlines
11/21/24
Improving the Passenger Airline Experience
Paper
In this policy blueprint, Ganesh Sitaraman and Anirudh Jonnavithula show how to improve the in-flight passenger experience. From addressing shrinking seat sizes to improving infant travel and wheelchair access, these recommendations would make flying safer, less miserable, and more convenient.
11/21/24
Americans Want Reforms to Improve the Airline Passenger Experience
Report
New polling commissioned by VPA reveals that Americans are dissatisfied with the airline passenger experience and support proposals that would make air travel more comfortable, affordable, and convenient for all flyers.
1/26/24
How to Fix Flying: A New Approach to Regulating the Airline Industry
Paper
William McGee and Ganesh Sitaraman provide policymakers with concrete proposals to regulate the airline industry. From geographic access to passenger safety and beyond, the authors offer wide-ranging policy options to improve air travel.
11/14/23
Why Airlines Don’t Fly to Your City and Other Problems Washington Caused
Oped
Ganesh Sitaraman discusses the history of airline deregulation and offers policy solutions in an oped for Politico.
11/14/23
When air travel featured piano bars and champagne
Oped
Ganesh Sitaraman discusses how deregulation has affected air travel since the 1970s in an oped for CNN.
9/21/23
Airlines Are Just Banks Now
Oped
Ganesh Sitaraman argues that frustrating mileage programs are a symptom of airline deregulation in an oped for The Atlantic.
11/14/23
Why Flying is Miserable
Book
In this book, Ganesh Sitaraman argues that reforms are needed to fix the concentrated airline industry and low-quality air service that American travelers deal with today. Tracing the industry’s problems back to airline deregulation in 1978, Sitaraman proposes new ideas for airline policy that prioritize access, stability, and fair pricing. (Columbia Global Reports, 2023)
Banks as Public Utilities
9/14/23
Rebuilding Banking Law: Banks as Public Utilities
Paper
Under the New Deal framework for money and payments—which had its roots in the National Bank Act of 1864—banks in the United States were governed in many respects as public utilities. Unfortunately, policymakers have steadily undermined and degraded key elements of this system and now its logic has been largely forgotten. This paper proposes a blueprint for reform, a New National Banking system.
9/14/23
A Ten-Point Plan for Making Banking a Public Utility
Policy Brief
It is time for Congress to modernize American banking regulation by building on what worked in the past—a public utility approach.
9/14/23
Make Banks Public Utilities
Oped
Morgan Ricks and Lev Menand discuss banks as public utilities in an oped for the Washington Post.
Competition Policy
5/10/24
New Ideas in Competition Policy
Paper
VPA compiles 40 recommendations for executive action to promote competition throughout the American economy.
Defense Production Act
11/4/24
Revitalizing the Defense Production Act Committee
Paper
Joel Dodge provides recommendations for how to turn the Defense Production Act Committee into an effective coordinating and planning body to oversee the federal government’s use of one of its most significant industrial policy laws, and to expand agencies’ ability to deploy the DPA’s authorities.
9/29/24
Creating a Public Cloud through the DPA
Paper
Joel Dodge offers a pathway for public cloud infrastructure, illustrating how the executive branch can harness its authorities within the Defense Production Act to acquire semiconductors and other essential hardware inputs.
Drone Delivery
11/1/24
Regulating Drone Delivery
Paper
Drone delivery may soon be allowed to scale rapidly due to new federal regulations. VPA Senior Policy Analyst Ramsay Eyre considers the risks of scaling up drone delivery, and offers policymakers tools to govern the industry in the public interest.
11/1/24
Drone Delivery Polling Report
Report
VPA's polling shows that Americans have serious concerns about unregulated drone delivery services -- including on surveillance, safety, and the power of Big Tech.
Governing Artificial Intelligence
9/29/24
The National Security Case for Public AI
Paper
Ganesh Sitaraman and Alex Pascal make the case that public options for AI and public utility-style regulation of AI will enhance national security by ensuring innovation and competition, preventing abuses of power and conflicts of interest, and advancing public interest and national security goals.
9/29/24
Creating a Public Cloud through the Defense Production Act
Paper
Joel Dodge argues that the executive branch can use the Defense Production Act (DPA) to acquire essential hardware inputs for building public cloud infrastructure.
2/21/24
Promoting Competition in Federal AI Procurement
Paper
VPA offers policy solutions for promoting competition in federal AI procurement, and how to implement them.
10/10/23
An Antimonopoly Approach to Governing AI
Paper
A close look at the AI tech stack reveals that critical layers are likely to be or already are monopolistic or oligopolistic. Authors offer a way forward.
10/10/23
Antimonopoly Tools for Regulating AI
Policy Brief
VPA offers policymakers antimonopoly tools for regulating AI, including industrial policy, public utility regulations, and a public option for AI.
10/10/23
Building Public Capacity on Artificial Intelligence
Paper
Authors offer two proposals to build public capacity on AI: a new U.S. Artificial Intelligence Service, and a broader U.S. Technology Administration.
10/10/23
AI Polling Report
Polling Report
New polling commissioned by VPA reveals that Americans are deeply concerned about the concentration of power in the AI industry and support antimonopoly regulations and building public AI capacity.
3/13/24
How States Can Keep Big Tech from Dominating AI
Oped
Ganesh Sitaraman and Natalie Foster address how policymakers can address concentration in the AI "tech stack" in an oped for Politico.
1/15/24
It’s Time for the Government to Regulate AI. Here’s How.
Oped
Ganesh Sitaraman and Tejas N. Narechania present a classic argument for regulating AI in an oped for Politico.
10/10/23
The Government Can 'Get It Right' on AI
Oped
Ganesh Sitaraman and Ramsay Eyre make the case for building public capacity on AI in an oped in Politico.
Grocery Stores
3/18/24
Public Grocery Stores: A Guide for Policymakers
VPA's new Guide discusses the problem of food deserts, the benefits of public grocery stores, case studies from around the country, and practical considerations in implementing public grocery stores.
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