3/18/24
Public Grocery Stores: A Guide for Policymakers
VPA's new Guide provides a framework for policymakers interested in understanding the case for public grocery stores and the practicalities—and challenges—in implementing them. Through a series of case studies, the Guide discusses cooperative grocery stores, nonprofit grocery stores, public-private partnerships, and publicly-owned stores, and offers important lessons for policymakers and communities that are trying to tackle food deserts.
Projects
Networks, Platforms, and Utilities
Many pressing challenges in public policy stem from Networks, Platforms, and Utilities (NPUs), including supply chain issues in railroads, airline flight cancellations, broadband internet access, electric grid crashes, the emergence of nonbank money, and anticompetitive practices on tech platforms.
The Project on Networks, Platforms, and Utilities aims to reinvigorate this field of study in law schools, encourage research on the regulation of NPUs, and develop policy proposals to improve NPU governance.
Industrial Policy and Economic Security
The Project on Industrial Policy and Economic Security (IPES) aims to advance research and policy on supply chain disruptions, domestic production, trade wars, economic sanctions, and state capacity.
Public Options and Governance
The Project on Public Options and Governance advances research and policy solutions that expand access, enhance competition, and increase opportunity to critical goods and services for American consumers, families, and communities by promoting state capacity building and good governance practices. Topics of interest include federal procurement practices and public options—publicly-provided goods and services that coexist with the private marketplace.
Issues
Governing Artificial Intelligence
In a series of new papers, VPA offers solutions to address the concentration of power in the AI industry through antimonopoly policies and measures to build public sector AI capacity.
New polling from VPA reveals that Americans oppose big tech dominance of AI and support an antimonopoly and public capacity approach to AI.
Banks as Public Utilities
In a new paper and policy brief, Morgan Ricks and Lev Menand argue that it is time for Congress to modernize American banking regulation by building on what worked in the past—a public utility approach.
Airlines
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's Project on Networks, Platforms, and Utilities addresses how policymakers can improve air travel.
Grocery Stores
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 framework for policymakers interested in understanding the case for public grocery stores and the practicalities—and challenges—in implementing them.
WORK WITH US
Join our team of scholars, policy experts, and students working on networks, platforms, and utilities.
Latest News
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VPA Engages Washington on "How to Fix Flying"
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VPA Helps to Chart the Future of AI Governance in Washington
VPA engaged a variety of audiences on the regulation of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which has captured the nation’s attention since the release of ChatGPT in 2022.
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Yale Journal on Regulation Hosts Symposium
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Deregulation's Impact on the Airline Industry
Time magazine cites Sitaraman, Ricks and Serkin research on regulation and geographic inequality.
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After Silicon Valley Bank, scrap the bank insurance deposit limit
Opinion piece co-authored by Vanderbilt Law Professor Morgan Ricks published in The Washington Post.
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A Radical Way of Thinking About Money
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The Era of Neoliberal U.S. Foreign Policy Is Over
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A Simple Way to Regulate TikTok
Essay in Politico by Ganesh Sitaraman.
Contact Info
Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator
Vanderbilt University Law School
131 21st Ave S
Nashville, TN 37203
Email
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