We investigate whether personal information posted by job candidates on social media sites is sought and used by prospective employers. We create profiles for job candidates on popular social networks, manipulating information protected under U.S. laws, and submit job applications on their...

In recent years, many lawsuits have been filed by individuals seeking legal redress for harms caused by the loss or theft of their personal information. However, very little is known about the drivers, mechanics, and outcomes of those lawsuits, making it difficult to assess the effectiveness of...

We analyze personal data protection laws in the United States through the lenses of the economic theories of ex ante safety regulation, ex post liability and information disclosure. Specifically, we consider and contrast how legal and economic theories interpret privacy costs and the remedies to...

In the United States, identity theft resulted in corporate and consumer losses of $56 billion dollars in 2005, with up to 35 percent of known identity thefts caused by corporate data breaches. Many states have responded by adopting “data breach disclosure laws” that require firms to notify...

"Human capital," "ideas" and "knowledge" have been used as interchangeable, almost synonymous terms, representing knowledge-related factors in the neoclassical literature on growth. This paper emphasizes the differences between different forms of knowledge and tests the response of a standard...

Computers are different from hammers because, unlike hammers, they can operate autonomously, manipulate symbols, and modify themselves. This paper analyzes the factor behind the phenomenon of the de-materialization of advanced economies: combinations of electronic hardware and software; considers...

Physical cash is vulnerable to rising threats, such as large-scale, government-mandated forgeries, that digital cash may protect against more effectively. We study mechanisms to combine physical cash with digital cash to remove their respective shortcomings and obtain their combined advantages....