Highways, railroads, pipelines—we see or hear about these types of physical networks almost every day. But information systems, such as the Internet, and payment systems, such as ATMs and credit cards, also involve networks. Hence, understanding the economics of networks and the unique...

To become an active market in goods and services, the Internet must overcome a fundamental hurdle: a way must be devised for buyers and sellers to securely and conveniently exchange payment over the Internet. Software companies and financial institutions are now developing methods that will...

Leonard Nakamura suggests that a new era of heightened creative destruction that began in the late 1970s also ushered in a new era of heightened competition. Such intensified competition has made leaders of large industrial enterprises vulnerable to a level of uncertainty previously reserved for...

Has American economic progress slowed dramatically—or even stopped? Or are the statistics wrong: has the U.S. economy been experiencing strong growth, but our official measures fail to reflect it? In this article, Leonard Nakamura explores how economic progress is measured and discusses some...

Generating new products requires corporations to spend very large sums of money. These expenditures often lead to the development of intangible assets, such as patents and copyrights, that can add considerably to a company's coffers and stock market value. However, in general, our accounting...

The financial crisis of 2007-2008 left in its wake new responsibilities for regulators to monitor the economy for risks to financial stability. The new task of monitoring financial stability includes tracking the risks of financial instruments and learning where these risks are located within...

Leonard Nakamura states that despite consumers’ lack of respect for advertising, it nonetheless plays a significant role in the economy. For one thing, it helps consumers find out about new products, and new products have been rising in economic importance. It also plays a role in subsidizing...