Today’s Research Roundup includes thirty studies on economics, law, and technology. Of these we highlight two papers that undertake complementary analyses of some implications of moving our lives increasingly online.
Vili Lehdonvirta of the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology offers an impressively lengthy look into virtual consumption, that is, the purchase of a unique class of not-quite-goods, not-quite-services that exist only within the confines of an online environment (items for sale in a computer game are the classic example). With a decidedly sociological approach, Lehdonvirta seeks to answer “why do people spend real money on virtual goods?”
Miriam Cherry of the University of the Pacific looks at the virtual individual as producer by cataloging the phenomenon of “cyberwork.” As opposed to Lehdonvirta’s more abstract academic exercise, Cherry considers for-pay online activity with an eye for how it relates to existing protections and legal frameworks in the offline labor market, including anti-discrimination laws, wage standards, and even unionization (for example, she believes virtual work will “encourage unions, out of necessity, to adopt a more global perspective”).
Neither study has many immediate policy implications. Nevertheless, their consideration of such novel—and perhaps someday fundamental—elements of the economy remind us there is a lot left to learn about the digital age.
(Click through to the full post to see the list of papers and abstract excerpts)
