Re:Why Are Economists Giving Piketty the Cold Shoulder? (2017)
by webmaven on Sunday March 31, 2019 @05:57PM
(#19538685)
> the extracted payments are personal information---which is not captured in any economic theory I've ever seen---and the moat blocking competitive pressure is the combined result of network effects (bigger databases win) and extensive financial capitalization.
You might take a look at Carl Shapiro and Hal Varian's 1999 boom Information Rules:
It is perhaps surprising that Varian in particular (Google's Chief Economist) hasn't had more to say about data as a raw material in the years since those books came out.
BTW, your "extracted payments are personal information" formulation may be part of your problem in finding relevant economic theories. At least in part, what is being extracted is actually a capitulation to being locked-in to a system that continuously extracts information. So looking into the economic theories of technology vendor lock-in, as well as the perverse economics of information security may provide some insight.
You might take a look at Carl Shapiro and Hal Varian's 1999 boom Information Rules:
https://books.google.com/books?id=z0hQ12PrERMC&printsec=fron...
As well as their (along with Joseph Farrell) 2004 book The Economics of Information:
https://books.google.com/books?id=-dcLAQAAQBAJ&printsec=fron...
It is perhaps surprising that Varian in particular (Google's Chief Economist) hasn't had more to say about data as a raw material in the years since those books came out.
BTW, your "extracted payments are personal information" formulation may be part of your problem in finding relevant economic theories. At least in part, what is being extracted is actually a capitulation to being locked-in to a system that continuously extracts information. So looking into the economic theories of technology vendor lock-in, as well as the perverse economics of information security may provide some insight.