Seven Deadly Sins of Tech?

21 Pages Posted: 18 Feb 2021

See all articles by Hal R. Varian

Hal R. Varian

School of Information; University of California, Berkeley - Operations and Information Technology Management Group; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Date Written: September 01, 2020

Abstract

There is currently a great deal of interest in online competition, particularly involving large tech firms such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft (a group commonly known as “GAFAM”). In this essay I examine several issues involving these firms that have often come up both in the popular press and academic discussions. The goal of this paper is to examine the facts about the alleged seven deadly sins of tech: competition, innovation, acquisitions, entry, switching costs, entry barriers, and size. I argue that when you look at the facts, it is clear that competition among tech firms is working well, and this has yielded many positive outcomes for consumers and the economy as a whole.

Keywords: information technology, competition policy

JEL Classification: L:1, L4

Suggested Citation

Varian, Hal R., Seven Deadly Sins of Tech? (September 01, 2020). Information Economics and Policy, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3750292 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3750292

Hal R. Varian (Contact Author)

School of Information ( email )

UC Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-4600
United States
510-642-9980 (Phone)
510-642-5814 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~hal/people/hal/biography.html

University of California, Berkeley - Operations and Information Technology Management Group ( email )

545 Student Services Building
Berkeley, CA 94720
United States
510-643-6388 (Phone)

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
421
Abstract Views
1,199
Rank
127,505
PlumX Metrics