Will Big Data Create a Personalized Pricing Nirvana for Retailers?

In a fascinating blog post, Adam Ozimek makes the case that we will see much more individualized pricing (which economists call "first degree price discrimination") as more data mining becomes available.  For instance, in a new working paper, Ben Shiller is able to use big data to massively improve his ability to predict demand for Netflix subscriptions by any given individual: …

The entrepreneurial state?

In Slate, Marianna Mazzucato argues that it is a myth that entrepreneurs drive innovation. I'll chalk that up to the Slate sub-editorial title writers because what the article is really saying is the 'independent' entrepreneurs do not drive innovation. Instead, in many classic situations the hand of the government was there and it is difficult …