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.
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...
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...
Innovation and Intellectual Property
Negotiating for the Market (2011)
In a dynamic environment where underlying competition is ‘for the market,’ this paper examines what...
Funding Scientific Knowledge: Selection, Disclosure and the Public-Private Portfolio (with Fiona Murray), Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity (2011)
This paper examines argues that while two distinct perspectives characterize the foundations of the public...
When is Static Analysis a Sufficient Proxy for Dynamic Considerations? Reconsidering Antitrust and Innovation, Innovation Policy and the Economy (2010)
This paper examines the claim that dynamic considerations play a particularly important role in certain...
Contracting over the Disclosure of Scientific Knowledge: Intellectual Property Protection and Academic Publication (with Fiona E. Murray and Scott Stern) (2010)
Knowledge disclosure plays a central role in models of economic growth. Few studies, however, have...
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...
Industrial Organisation
Mobile Application Pricing (2011)
This paper examines the pricing of mobile applications when app providers can supply consumers directly...
A Comparison of Ex Ante versus Ex Post Vertical Market Supply: Evidence from the Electricity Supply Industry (with Frank A. Wolak) (2011)
This paper provides a prospective and retrospective quantitative assessment of the impact of a passive...
Collusion at the Extensive Margin (with Martin C. Byford) (2010)
This paper is the first to examine collusion at the extensive margin (whereby fi rms...
When is Static Analysis a Sufficient Proxy for Dynamic Considerations? Reconsidering Antitrust and Innovation, Innovation Policy and the Economy (2010)
This paper examines the claim that dynamic considerations play a particularly important role in certain...
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...
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)
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,...
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...
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...
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....