Showing papers by "Hal R. Varian published in 1999"

Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy

Abstract: From the Publisher: Information Goods -- from movies and music to software code and stock quotes - have supplanted industrial goods as the key drivers of world markets. Confronted by this New Economy, many instinctively react by searching for a corresponding New Economics to guide their business decisions. Executives charged with rolling out cutting-edge software products or on-line versions of their magazines are tempted to abandon the classic lessons of economics, and rely instead on an ever changing roster of trends, buzzwords, and analogies that promise to guide strategy in the information age. Not so fast, say authors Carl Shapiro and Hal R. Varian. In Information Rules they warn managers, "Ignore basic economic principles at your own risk. Technology changes. Economic laws do not." Understanding these laws and their relevance to information goods is critical when fashioning today's successful competitive strategies. Information Rules introduces and explains the economic concepts needed to navigate the evolving network economy. Information Rules will help business leaders and policy makers - from executives in the entertainment, publishing, hardware, and software industries to lawyers, finance professionals, and writers -- make intelligent decisions about their information assets.

Economic Preferences or Attitude Expressions?: An Analysis of Dollar Responses to Public Issues

Abstract: Participants in contingent valuation surveys and jurors setting punitive damages in civil trials provide answers denominated in dollars. These answers are better understood as expressions of attitudes than as indications of economic preferences. Well-established characteristics of attitudes and of the core process of affective valuation explain several robust features of dollar responses: high correlations with other measures of attractiveness or aversiveness, insensitivity to scope, preference reversals, and the high variability of dollar responses relative to other measures of the same attitude.

The Art of Standards Wars

Abstract: Competition in the information age often takes the form of a standards war: a battle for market dominance between incompatible technologies. A company's success or failure can easily hinge on its ability to wage such a standards war. Standards wars are especially bitter in markets with strong network effects, where consumers place great value on compatibility and interconnection with each other. These markets tend to exhibit positive feedback and "tip" to a single winner. Based on a study of dozens of standards wars going back over 100 years, this article offers a "battle guide" for waging a standards war. After classifying standards wars and identifying seven key assets that firms can use to successfully establish a new technology, the authors recommend three tactics in standards battles: building alliances, exploiting first-mover advantages, and managing consumer expectations.

Market Structure in the Network Age

Abstract: E-commerce will undoubtedly change the way business is done. But as we have said elsewhere, “technology changes, economic laws do not.” Despite the changes introduced by e-commerce, many of the fundamental principles of competition will still be relevant. In this paper I investigate three aspects of competition in ecommerce: marketing, interconnection, and price matching. In each case I will describe the phenomenon, illustrate its relevance for ecommerce, and describe some research issues raised.

Preplay contracting in the Prisoners' dilemma.

Abstract: We consider a modified Prisoners’ Dilemma game in which each agent can offer to pay the other agent to cooperate. The subgame perfect equilibrium of this two-stage game is Pareto efficient. We examine experimentally whether subjects actually manage to achieve this efficient outcome. We find an encouraging level of support for the mechanism, but also find some evidence that subjects’ tastes for cooperation and equity may have significant interactions with the incentives provided by the mechanism.

Economics and search

Abstract: They say that economists are people who are good with numbers but don’t have the personality to become accountants. I want to belie that mild-mannered image by doing something rash and even downright dangerous: I want to talk to you about some work in my subject, economics, that I think might be relevant to the work in your subject, information retrieval. I take this step with considerable trepidation, since I know that it is unlikely to be successful. It is rare that an outsider can really contribute anything useful to another subject, as I know from listening to innumerable speeches by the physicists, biologists, and mathematicians about what their subject has to say about economics. However, it is also true that such cross fertilization can be extremely stimulating. Economics has, in fact, learned a lot from physics, biology and mathematics. And even when such attempts at interdisciplinary communication fail, as they often do, it is often interesting to see how others approach the questions that are your main business. Here are three areas in economics where I think there might be some fruitful cross-fertilization:

The economics of search

Abstract: Economists have investigated models of optimal search behavior that may be relevant to information retrieval. This talk will describe some of the reults of this research and speculate on how they might be useful in the IR context. Professor Varian has published numerous papers in economic theory, industrial organization, financial economics, econometrics and information economics. He is the author of two major economics textbooks which have been translated into 9 languages. His recent work has been concerned with the economics of information technology and the information economy. He recently co-authored Information Rules (with Carl Shapiro, Harvard Business School Press 1998), a book which distills the economic principles of information and networks into practical business strategies. Information Rules was named Editor's Choice as one of the best business books of the year at Amazon.com

The Economics of the Internet and Academia

Abstract: Economie de Internet et de l'edition electronique. Histoire, financement, et avenir d'Internet. Explication du trafic actuel, de l'augmentation de la demande et de l'encombrement. Modele commmercial de l'Internet, methodes de financement des services et methodes de mesure du trafic. Proposition de modeles de communication scientifique par Internet. Problemes de propriete intellectuelle, prix, paiement, edition, cout des communications scientifiques en format electronique