The invention of new applications based on information and communications technologies (ICTs) has had two economic effects up to now. These applications have transformed production, creating value for applications-inventing companies and their customers and increasing economic growth through...

Although experimentation is critical to the innovation process in startups, little research has explored the link between different experimentation strategies and entrepreneurial innovation. We use unique data on experimentation strategies and innovation outcomes of firms producing iPhone...

The mobile applications (apps) industry has exhibited rapid entry and growth in the midst of a recession. Using unique data from the iPhone application ecosystem, we examine how the development of “killer apps” (apps appearing in the top grossing rank) varies by market and app...

Economy-wide increasing returns to scale embodied in a general purpose technology (GPT) and its applications are often a key source of long-run growth. Yet the successful exploitation of increasing returns calls for coordination on a particular technological direction, reducing flexibility and...

The mobile applications (apps) industry has exhibited rapid entry and growth in the midst of a recession. Using unique data from the iPhone application ecosystem, we examine how the development of "killer apps" (apps appearing in the top grossing rank) varies by market and app characteristics....

This paper proposes tests to empirically examine whether auction prices aggregate information away from the limit. These tests are applied to a unique dataset containing winning bids and measures of the value and dispersion of information signals in eBay auctions for computers. Results suggest...

With the prevalence of smartphones, it is important to understand the relationship between the smartphone channel and the computer channel. In this paper, we examine the extent to which smartphones substitute for or complement computers. We utilize unique panel data on individuals’ smartphone...

The effects of heterogeneous preferences or uncertainty about item values on the variance of dependent variables (e.g., auction prices; retail price dispersion; or investment choices in stocks, R&D, or education) are usually relegated to the error term, which a) confounds these effects with...