Precisely how does the online world provide public goods? That is the question for this column. Public goods in the digital world contain some of the same features as those in the offline world. Yet, there are some key differences in the boundaries between public and private, and that shapes what arises and what does …
iPads, Schools and Teenage Dreams
The LA School District has been pioneering a roll-out of iPads to High School students. But reports today suggest that things have not gone according to plan. Following news that students at a Los Angeles high school had hacked district-issued iPads and were using them for personal use, district officials have halted home use of …
iOS7 is great for developers but Apple's own apps continue to suffer
Last week Apple realised iOS 7, the latest version of its mobile operating system. It was a very large update reflecting the design choices of Johnny Ive rather than Steve Jobs. I have been using iOS 7 for about six weeks now and I can say that it is a pleasure to use. It feels …
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The theory of newspaper woes
Susan Athey, Emilio Calvano and myself finally released our NBER working paper this week on the impact of the Internet on the news media. Having chatted with a journalist trying to decode our maths -- which by the way was critical in developing our theory -- I thought I'd link here to some more readable …
Clearer bar charts
When I look at economics papers and reports, the graphical presentations have hardly changed. This is despite a sizeable change in the tools available to us to provide clearer graphs. To illustrate what I mean take a look at this animated gif presentation. It is very compelling.
They're all wrong. Apple's iPhone versioning (redux)
Following up from my earlier post on Apple's iPhone versioning, Apple has released its new range. Here is the pricing: iPhone 4S (8GB): $0 ($450 unlocked) iPhone 5c: 16GB: $99 ($549 unlocked) 32GB: $199 ($649 unlocked) iPhone 5s: 16GB: $199 ($649 unlocked) 32GB: $299 ($749 unlocked) 64GB: $399 ($849 unlocked) In other words, the same …
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Apple's iPhone versioning
Tomorrow, Apple look set to introduce some new iPhones including an iPhone 5S (its flagship) and an iPhone 5C. The latter is seemingly a break from the past. From the rumours, it will be a lower cost iPhone but with colourful options possibly targeting the Chinese market where Apple finally signed on China Mobile as …
Coasian thinking
Ronald Coase passed away yesterday. In his 102 years, he had an extraordinarily widespread impact on economics; especially its interactions with legal thinking. There is much discussion today about his contributions; in particular, was the Coase Theorem really a theorem and the Coase conjecture ever proved. But, in so many respects, those discussions miss the …
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: …
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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 …
