The Sharing Economy: Issues Facing Platforms, Participants, and Regulators
20 Pages Posted: 27 May 2015 Last revised: 2 Jun 2015
Date Written: May 26, 2015
Abstract
Filing of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University to the Federal Trade Commission for the FTC's June 9, 2015 workshop on "The “Sharing” Economy: Issues Facing Platforms, Participants, and Regulators."
The Mercatus Center at George Mason University is dedicated to advancing knowledge about the impact of regulation on society. As part of its mission, the Mercatus Center conducts careful and independent analyses employing contemporary economic scholarship to assess rulemaking proposals from the perspective of the public interest. Thus, this comment before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) does not represent the views of any particular affected party or special interest group. Rather, it is designed to assist the commission as it weighs the costs and benefits of regulation that affects the sharing economy. Our comments to the commission are derived from recent Mercatus Center working papers on these issues.
Keywords: sharing economy, collaborative economy, asymmetric information, lemons problem, Akerlof, online innovation, regulation, inefficiency, reputation feedback, markets, network, public interest, regulatory capture, rent-seeking, e-commerce, ride sharing
JEL Classification: D45, H7, K22, K23, L1, L2, L5, L8, L9, M2, N7, O3, R4
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation