behavioral economics
11 articles
The Attention Economy: How Platforms Monetize Human Focus and Its Costs
Human attention is a scarce resource traded in billion-dollar markets. Examine how the attention economy works, how platforms capture and sell attention, and what research shows about its costs.
Black Market Economics: How Shadow Economies Form and How Big They Get
Shadow economies account for 15–60% of GDP in many countries. This article examines how black markets form, the economic forces that sustain them, and how governments attempt to measure them.
Conspicuous Consumption: Thorstein Veblen's Theory and the Modern Luxury Market
Thorstein Veblen's 1899 theory of conspicuous consumption argued that the leisure class purchases goods primarily to signal wealth and social status rather than for functional use. More than a century later, the global luxury goods market—valued at over $1.5 trillion—is built on exactly the mechanism he described.
Freemium Business Models: The Economics of Giving Products Away for Free
Freemium converts 2–5% of free users to paying customers. Examine the unit economics, conversion rate research, psychological mechanisms, and when the model succeeds or fails.
Loss Aversion: Why Losses Hit Twice as Hard as Gains
Kahneman and Tversky's Prospect Theory shows losses feel roughly twice as painful as equivalent gains. Explore the endowment effect, status quo bias, framing, and investment implications.
Loss Aversion: Why Losing $100 Hurts More Than Gaining $100 Feels Good
Explore loss aversion and prospect theory, the groundbreaking research by Kahneman and Tversky showing that losses loom larger than gains in human decision-making.
Planned Obsolescence: How Companies Engineer Products to Expire and the Legal Battles
In 1932, industrial designer Bernard London proposed planned obsolescence as a Depression-era economic stimulus. Today it is embedded in everything from smartphone batteries to printer ink cartridges—and faces a growing legal and regulatory backlash centered on right-to-repair legislation and EU product durability rules.
Platform Economics and Network Effects: Why Winner-Take-All Markets Form
Network effects make platforms more valuable as they grow, creating winner-take-all dynamics. Examine the economics of two-sided markets, tipping points, and how platforms sustain dominance.
The Economics of Crime: Becker's Model and Why Deterrence Has Limits
Gary Becker's 1968 rational choice model transformed criminology. Explore how economists model criminal behavior, what empirical research shows about deterrence, and where the model breaks down.
Gig Economy Economics: Platform Labor, Misclassification, and Income Volatility
59 million Americans do gig work. Examine the economic forces behind platform labor, the worker classification debate, income volatility research, and the policy responses across jurisdictions.
Veblen Goods: Why Demand for Luxury Items Rises When the Price Goes Up
Most goods follow the law of demand: as price rises, demand falls. Veblen goods do the opposite—higher prices signal higher status, making them more desirable. From Hermès Birkin bags to luxury cars, the economics of Veblen goods reveal how social signaling can invert basic market logic.