Sad news today that Suzanne Scotchmer has passed away. She was a professor of both economics and law at Berkeley and one of the most significant figures in applied economic theory over the past few decades. The loss from cancer came as a shock to many of us in the field. I can hardly imagine …
How Much Apache?
Almost with inexorable momentum, the Internet hurls itself into new territory. Some time ago, more than two billion humans had adopted at least one Internet-enabled device in some form, and nobody doubts that another two billion will accrue soon. New webpages increasingly find ways to inform readers, as more information in a variety of formats …
Now for some jaw droppingly bad analysis …
... Matt Yglesias in Slate. Now I should preface that I generally like Yglesias's writings which is why I read them but today something happened. The Wall Street Journal reported today that Snapchat turned down a $3 billion acquisition offer from Facebook. ... I say three cheers to Snapchat! The company's founders and investors may or …
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Information and the AEA Elections
Over at the Freakonomics blog, I have a short essay arguing that the AEA should consider providing more information about candidates for its officer elections. It may be of some interest to readers of this blog.
The State of Performance-driven Management in America
I teach at a School of Management so you won’t be surprised to learn that I think good management can make a huge difference in the performance of companies, and ultimately the economy. But you may be surprised that there is very little economic research on the effects of management. Sure, there’s lots of speculation and countless …
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Foolish Research
Today is April Fools Day although it is hard to miss it on the Internet. As this is a blog devoted to the more dispassionate investigation of the digital economy, I thought it would be appropriate to write a little today about several pieces of research that have been conducted by economists in recent years …
Consumer Surplus in the Online Economy
The Economist sponsors a blog called Free exchange. This week Free exchange solicited posts to complement an article in the magazine that discusses challenges measuring the consumer surplus generated by the internet. They invited experts in the field to comment on the piece and on related research. I made a contribution explaining the challenges in …
Postdoctoral Fellow in Infrastructure Studies
The University of Michigan announces an eleven-month postdoctoral fellowship position. The position will start September 1, 2013. Position Description The Department of Communication Studies (in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts) and the School of Information are jointly offering a postdoctoral fellow position in the multidisciplinary area of “infrastructure studies.” The addition of …
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Tracing patterns of academic rejection
[HT: Scholarly Kitchen] A new paper published in Science (of course, paywalled) examines publications in biological sciences from 2006 and 2008 to see how many were accepted at first instance and how many were initially rejected (or rejected at least once prior to acceptance). 75% were accepted first time around while many otherwise went through the system quickly. Not surprisingly, …
A Nobel Prize for Market Design
It is hard to predict what happens in markets and contests. But last night, I tweeted that I thought the Nobel prize for economics would be awarded for the field of practical market design. And, that is indeed what the Nobel committee announced today. I got that right and named Al Roth as one of …
Digitopoly 