The work analyses the writings of Shibani, considering their relevance for contemporary Islamic economics. The novelty of Shibani's earnings model is its integration of Zakat and other social giving in the social welfare function, which makes the consumer utility a multi-dimensional devotional,...

In contrast of the conventional perspective, a model of preference formation is developed of rational or intelligent utility maximizing agents wherein they can possess preferences that are objectively suboptimal from both an individual and social perspective. In addition, the revealed...

The Web is the largest human information construct in history transforming our society. How can we understand, measure and model the Web evolution in order to design effective policies and optimize its social benefit? Early measurements of the Internet traffic and the Web graph indicated the...

In 2010, Web users ordered, only in Amazon, 73 items per second and massively contribute reviews about their consuming experience. As the Web matures and becomes social and participatory, collaborative filters are the basic complement in searching online information about people, events and...

We present an information good pricing model with persistently heterogeneous consumers and a rising marginal propensity for them to pirate. Three offsetting pricing mechanisms occur: skimming, compressing price changes, and delaying product launch. We identify a novel trade off in piracy's...

Sellers sometimes offer goods for sale under both a regular price and a discount for group purchase if the consumer group reaches some minimum size. This selling practice, which we term interpersonal bundling, has been popularized on the Internet by companies such as Groupon. We explain why...

In Internet transactions, customers and service providers often interact once and anonymously. To prevent deceptive behavior a reputation system is particularly important to reduce information asymmetries about the quality of the offered product or service. In this study we examine the...

This study examines the situation in which a monopolist offers freeware as an advertisement for the increase of demand to maximize profit even though the existence of such freeware will reduce the power of the monopolist in the market. This study proves that the successful application of...

The advent of smartphones has caused a dramatic change in consumers' access to information and media. Using data on consumer telephone service choices, along with geographic data on cellular network infrastructure and software applications, we estimate the demand for telephone services. We allow...

Consumer review systems have become an important marketing communication tool through which consumers share and learn product information. Although there is abundant evidence that consumer reviews have significant impact on product sales, the design of consumer review systems and its impact on...