Tomorrow 3.0: Transaction Costs and the Sharing Economy

by Michael C. Munger

Overview

With the growing popularity of apps such as Uber and Airbnb, there has been a keen interest in the rise of the sharing economy. Michael C. Munger brings these new trends in the economy down to earth by focusing on their relation to the fundamental economic concept of transaction costs. In doing so Munger brings a fresh perspective on the 'sharing economy' in clear and engaging writing that is accessible to both general and specialist readers. He shows how, for the first time, entrepreneurs can sell reductions in transaction costs, rather than reductions in the costs of the products themselves. He predicts that smartphones will be used to commodify excess capacity, and reaches the controversial conclusion that a basic income will be required as a consequence of this new 'transaction costs revolution'.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781108427081
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/22/2018
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Economics, Choice, and Society
Pages:	188
Product dimensions:	6.18(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.63(d)

About the Author

Michael C. Munger is a Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Department of Economics at Duke University, North Carolina. He studied for a Ph.D. under Barry Weingast and Douglass North (1993 Nobel Prize) at Washington University in St Louis. After working at the US Federal Trade Commission, Munger taught at Dartmouth, Texas, and North Carolina before moving to Duke in 1997. He edited the journal Public Choice from 2005–2009.

Table of Contents

1. The world of tomorrow 3.0; 2. Division of labor, destruction, and revolution; 3. The middleman-sharing economy; 4. The answer is 'transaction costs' – Uber sells triangulation, transfer, and trust; 5. Jobs, work, and adaptation; 6. The day after tomorrow.

Editorial Reviews

'It is too early to see all the positive and negative consequences this third revolution will have, but change is inevitable. Modernity is a never-ending process; people are always looking for ways to make things better. The transaction cost revolution is the next step, and it is already changing lives. With Munger’s help and a little Econ 101 knowledge, that change will be much easier to navigate.' Ryan Young, OpenMarket (www.cei.org/blog)

'[I]n addition to its snappy readability and appeal for both professional and lay audiences, Tomorrow 3.0 is spot-on in the way that it treats expanding consumer access as the flip side of 'software eating the world'.' Pamela J. Hobart, Libertarianism.org (www.libertarianism.org)

From the Publisher