[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/anr/reveco/v15y2023p267-286.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Economics of Digital Privacy

Author

Listed:
  • Avi Goldfarb

    (Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada)

  • Verina F. Que

    (Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada)

Abstract
There has been increasing attention to privacy in the media and in regulatory discussions. This is a consequence of the increased usefulness of digital data. The literature has emphasized the benefits and costs of digital data flows to consumers and firms. The benefits arise in the form of data-driven innovation, higher-quality products and services that match consumer needs, and increased profits. The costs relate to the intrinsic and instrumental values of privacy. Under standard economic assumptions, this framing of a cost-benefit trade-off might suggest little role for regulation beyond ensuring consumers are appropriately informed in a robust competitive environment. The empirical literature thus far has focused on this direct cost-benefit assessment, examining how privacy regulations have affected various market outcomes. However, an increasing body of theory work emphasizes externalities related to data flows. These externalities, both positive and negative, suggest benefits to the targeted regulation of digital privacy.

Suggested Citation

  • Avi Goldfarb & Verina F. Que, 2023. "The Economics of Digital Privacy," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 15(1), pages 267-286, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:anr:reveco:v:15:y:2023:p:267-286
    DOI: 10.1146/annurev-economics-082322-014346
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-economics-082322-014346
    Download Restriction: Full text downloads are only available to subscribers. Visit the abstract page for more information.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1146/annurev-economics-082322-014346?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Su, Yingliang & Wu, Jiahua, 2024. "Digital transformation and enterprise sustainable development," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    2. Jiadong Gu, 2024. "Data Trade and Consumer Privacy," Papers 2406.12457, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2024.
    3. Aguirre De Mora, Florencia & Roseth, Benjamin & Santamaria, Julieth, 2024. "Does Reluctance to Share Personal Data Reduce Citizen Demand for Personalized Services? Evidence from a Survey Experiment," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 13565, Inter-American Development Bank.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    digital privacy; data externalities; privacy regulation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation
    • L86 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Information and Internet Services; Computer Software

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:anr:reveco:v:15:y:2023:p:267-286. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: http://www.annualreviews.org (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.annualreviews.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.