My research interests are varied and cover many aspects of applied economics including industrial organisation, the economics of innovation, regulatory economics and, recently, economic demography.
Australian Policy: Innovation
Assessing Australia's Innovative Capacity: 2007 Update (with Richard Hayes) (2008)
This report updates the Innovation Index created by Michael Porter and Scott Stern with data...
Australian Policy: Other
Return to Work Credits, IdeaPITCH (2008)
This report examines policy options for parental leave and evaluates them from an economics perspective....
Demography and Birth Timing
Born (Again) on the First of July: Another Experiment in Birth Timing (with Andrew Leigh) (2007)
In an earlier paper (Gans and Leigh, 2006a), we analysed the effect of the introduction...
Did the Death of Australian Inheritance Taxes Affect Deaths? (with Andrew Leigh), Topics in Economic Analysis & Policy (2007)
In 1979, Australia abolished federal inheritance taxes. Using daily deaths data, we show that approximately...
Toying with Death and Taxes: Some Lessons from Down Under (with Andrew Leigh), The Economists' Voice (2006)
Economists think many (most?) things are subject to incentives. The evidence from ''Down Under'' suggests...
Born on the First of July: An (Un)natural Experiment in Birth Timing (with Andrew Leigh) (2006)
It is well understood that government policies can distort behavior. But what is less often...
Environmental Economics
Carbon Offset Provision with Guilt-Ridden Consumers (with Vivienne Groves) (2009)
Carbon offsets can be purchased by consumers who wish to mitigate their emissions. In a...
Innovation and Climate Change Policy (2009)
This paper examines then notion that more stringent climate change policy will induce innovation in...
Do Voluntary Carbon Offsets Work?, The Economists' Voice (2007)
Voluntary purchases of offsets for carbon emissions have been criticized as potentially increasing emissions. However,...
Financial Economics
AussieMac: Postscript (with Christopher Joye), IdeaPITCH (Postscript) (2008)
The purpose of this postscript is to review the many responses to our AussieMac proposal...
Aussie Mac: A Policy Proposal for Australia (with Christopher R. Joye) (2008)
There is a new global financial crisis emerging caused by the collapse of sub-prime lending...
Industrial Organisation
The Impact of Targeting Technology on Advertising Markets and Media Competition (with Susan Athey) (2009)
This paper examines the impact of geographic targeting technology on local advertising markets when local...
Platform Siphoning (with Simon P. Anderson) (2009)
The business model of commercial-financing relies on advertisers to pay for content. Advertisers will not...
Exit Deterrence (with Martin Byford) (2009)
This paper is the first to provide a general context whereby potential entry can lead...
Can the Threat of Entry Reduce Competition? (with Martin C. Byford) (2008)
This paper is the first to provide a general context whereby potential entry can permanently...
TiVoed: The Effects of Ad-Avoidance Technologies on Broadcaster Behaviour (with Simon P. Anderson) (2008)
The business model of commercial (free-to-air) television relies on advertisers to pay for programming. Viewers...
Innovation and Intellectual Property
Is there a market for ideas? (with Scott Stern), Industrial and Corporate Change (2010)
This paper draws on recent work in market design to evaluate the conditions under which...
Negotiating for the Market (2009)
In a dynamic environment where underlying competition is ‘for the market,’ this paper examines what...
Innovation and Climate Change Policy (2009)
This paper examines then notion that more stringent climate change policy will induce innovation in...
Start-Up Commercialisation Strategy and Innovative Dynamics (2007)
This paper endogenises a start-up’s choice between competitive and cooperative commercialisation in a dynamic environment....
The Impact of Uncertainty Intellectual Property Rights on the Market for Ideas: Evidence from Patent Grant Delays (with David H. Hsu and Scott Stern) (2007)
This paper considers the impact of the intellectual property (IP) system on the timing of...
Payment Systems
The Neutrality of Interchange Fees in Payment Systems (with Stephen P King), The B.E. Journals in Economic Analysis & Policy (2003)
There has been considerable public debate over the effect of interchange fees on credit card...
Approaches to Regulating Interchange Fees in Payment Systems (with Stephen P. King), Review of Network Economics (2003)
Significant attention worldwide has been paid to the regulation of credit card interchange fees. In...
Theory of the Firm
Markets for Ownership, RAND Journal of Economics (2005)
The prevailing theory of the firm demonstrates that ownership by dispensable, outside parties is inefficient...
Organizational Design and Technology Choice under Intrafirm Bargaining: Comment (with Catherine C. de Fontenay), American Economic Review (2003)
Vertical Integration and Outsourcing
Exclusivity, Competition and the Irrelevance of Internal Investments (with Catherine C. de Fontenay and Vivienne Groves) (2009)
This paper considers the effect of exclusive contracts on investment decisions in a market with...
Exclusivity, Competition, and the Irrelevance of External Investments (with Catherine C. de Fontenay and Vivienne Groves), Catherine de Fontenay (2009)
This paper considers the effect of exclusive contracts on investment decisions in a market with...
A Bargaining Perspective on Strategic Outsourcing and Supply Competition (forthcoming) (with Catherine C. de Fontenay), Strategic Management Journal (2008)
This paper considers the outsourcing choice of a downstream firm with its own upstream production...
Bilateral Bargaining with Externalities (with Catherine C. de Fontenay) (2007)
This paper provides an analysis of a non-cooperative pairwise bargaining game between agents in a...
Vertical Integration in the Presence of Upstream Competition (with Catherine C. de Fontenay), RAND Journal of Economics (2005)
We analyze vertical integration to compare outcomes under upstream competition and monopoly. This is done...