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Articles 1 - 7 of 7
Full-Text Articles in Law
Automation And Jobs: When Technology Boosts Employment, James Bessen
Automation And Jobs: When Technology Boosts Employment, James Bessen
Faculty Scholarship
Will new technologies cause industries to shed jobs, requiring novel policies to address mass unemployment? Sometimes productivity-enhancing technology increases industry employment instead. In manufacturing, jobs grew along with productivity for a century or more; only later did productivity gains bring declining employment. What changed? The elasticity of demand. Using data over two centuries for US textile, steel and auto industries, this paper shows that automation initially spurred job growth because demand was highly elastic. But demand later became satiated, leading to job losses. A simple model explains why this pattern might be common, suggesting that today's technologies may cause some …
Industry Concentration And Information Technology, James Bessen
Industry Concentration And Information Technology, James Bessen
Faculty Scholarship
Industry concentration has been rising in the US since 1980. Does this signal declining competition and need for a new antitrust policy? Or are other factors causing concentration to rise? This paper explores the role of proprietary information technology (IT), which could increase the productivity of top firms relative to others and raise their market share. Instrumental variable estimates find a strong link between proprietary IT and rising industry concentration, accounting for much of its growth. Moreover, the top four firms in each industry benefit disproportionately. Large investments in proprietary software—$250 billion per year—appear to significantly impact industry structure.
Shocking Technology: What Happens When Firms Make Large It Investments?, James Bessen, Cesare Righi
Shocking Technology: What Happens When Firms Make Large It Investments?, James Bessen, Cesare Righi
Faculty Scholarship
Many economists see information technology (IT) as central to understanding trends in productivity, labor’s share of output, and employment, especially as new “artificial intelligence” (AI) technologies emerge. Yet it has been difficult to measure its effects. This paper takes a first look at the economic impacts of large custom software investment by firms—“IT shocks.” Using a novel difference-in-differences methodology, we estimate the productivity of these shocks and the associated effects on revenues and employment and we explore the implications in terms of labor’s share and other variables, including heterogeneous relationships by industry, AI use, and time. In our preferred models, …
Digital Market Perfection, Rory Van Loo
Digital Market Perfection, Rory Van Loo
Faculty Scholarship
Google’s, Apple’s, and other companies’ automated assistants are increasingly serving as personal shoppers. These digital intermediaries will save us time by purchasing grocery items, transferring bank accounts, and subscribing to cable. The literature has only begun to hint at the paradigm shift needed to navigate the legal risks and rewards of this coming era of automated commerce. This Article begins to fill that gap first by surveying legal battles related to contract exit, data access, and deception that will determine the extent to which automated assistants are able to help consumers to search and switch, potentially bringing tremendous societal benefits. …
Diffusing New Technology Without Dissipating Rents: Some Historical Case Studies Of Knowledge Sharing, James Bessen, Alessandro Nuvolari
Diffusing New Technology Without Dissipating Rents: Some Historical Case Studies Of Knowledge Sharing, James Bessen, Alessandro Nuvolari
Faculty Scholarship
The diffusion of innovations is supposed to dissipate inventors’ rents. Yet in many documented cases, inventors freely shared knowledge with their competitors. Using a model and case studies, this article explores why sharing did not eliminate inventors’ incentives. Each new technology coexisted with an alternative for one or more decades. This allowed inventors to earn rents while sharing knowledge, attaining major productivity gains. The technology diffusion literature suggests that such circumstances are common during the early stages of a new technology.
Data Generated By New Technologies And The Law: A Guide For Massachusetts Practitioners, Andrew Sellars
Data Generated By New Technologies And The Law: A Guide For Massachusetts Practitioners, Andrew Sellars
Faculty Scholarship
This brief paper, created as part of a training on new technologies and evidence for MCLE New England, outlines the standards used to compel disclosure of information under the Stored Communication Act, and reviews the types of data stored on various consumer devices and their likely custodians, as well as cases and notes relevant to each devices. The paper serves as a quick introduction and checklist for those considering gathering information from these devices in the course of investigations in Massachusetts. The devices outlined include cell phones, social media platforms, secure messaging services, fitness trackers, home assistant devices (or "smart …
Existential Copyright And Professional Photography, Jessica Silbey, Eva Subotnik, Peter Dicola
Existential Copyright And Professional Photography, Jessica Silbey, Eva Subotnik, Peter Dicola
Faculty Scholarship
Intellectual property law has intended benefits, but it also carries certain costs — deliberately so. Skeptics have asked: Why should intellectual property law exist at all? To get traction on that overly broad but still important inquiry, we decided to ask a new, preliminary question: What do creators in a particular industry actually use intellectual property for? In this first-of-its-kind study, we conducted thirty-two in-depth qualitative interviews of photographers about how copyright law functions within their creative and business practices. By learning the actual functions of copyright law on the ground, we can evaluate and contextualize existing theories of intellectual …