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Privacy, property rights and efficiency: The economics of privacy as secrecy

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Author Info
Benjamin Hermalin ()
Michael Katz ()

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Abstract

There is a long history of governmental efforts to protect personal privacy and strong debates about the merits of such policies. A central element of privacy is the ability to control the dissemination of personally identifiable data to private parties. Posner, Stigler, and others have argued that privacy comes at the expense of allocative efficiency. Others have argued that privacy issues are readily resolved by proper allocation of property rights to control information. Our principal findings challenge both views. We find: (a) privacy can be efficient even when there is no “taste” for privacy per se, and (b) to be effective, a privacy policy may need to ban information transmission or use rather than simply assign individuals control rights to their personally identifiable data. Copyright Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2006

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File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11129-005-9004-7
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Publisher Info
Article provided by Springer in its journal Quantitative Marketing and Economics.

Volume (Year): 4 (2006)
Issue (Month): 3 (September)
Pages: 209-239
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Handle: RePEc:kap:qmktec:v:4:y:2006:i:3:p:209-239

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Related research
Keywords: Privacy; Property rights; Personal data; Asymmetric information;

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

  1. Grossman, Sanford J, 1981. "The Informational Role of Warranties and Private Disclosure about Product Quality," Journal of Law & Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(3), pages 461-83, December.
  2. Posner, Richard A, 1981. "The Economics of Privacy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(2), pages 405-09, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Hirshleifer, Jack, 1971. "The Private and Social Value of Information and the Reward to Inventive Activity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 61(4), pages 561-74, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Jonathan Levin, 2001. "Information and the Market for Lemons," Working Papers 01004, Stanford University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  5. Charles M. Kahn & James McAndrews & William Roberds, 2000. "A theory of transactions privacy," Working Paper 2000-22, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. [Downloadable!]
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  6. Giacomo Calzolari & Alessandro Pavan, 2004. "On the Optimality of Privacy in Sequential Contracting," Discussion Papers 1394, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. George J. Stigler, 1980. "An Introduction to Privacy in Economics and Politics," University of Chicago - George G. Stigler Center for Study of Economy and State 10, Chicago - Center for Study of Economy and State.
  8. Varian, Hal R., 1989. "Price discrimination," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: R. Schmalensee & R. Willig (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 10, pages 597-654 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Curt Taylor, 2004. "Privacy and Information Acquisition in Competitive Markets," Berkeley Olin Program in Law & Economics, Working Paper Series 1165, Berkeley Olin Program in Law & Economics. [Downloadable!]
  10. Paul R. Milgrom, 1981. "Good News and Bad News: Representation Theorems and Applications," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 12(2), pages 380-391, Autumn. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Luc Wathieu & Allan Friedman, 2009. "An Empirical Approach to Understanding Privacy Concerns," ESMT Research Working Papers ESMT-09-001, ESMT European School of Management and Technology, revised 14 Jan 2009. [Downloadable!]
  2. Michele Braun & James McAndrews & William Roberds & Richard Sullivan, 2008. "Understanding risk management in emerging retail payments," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, issue Sep, pages 137-159. [Downloadable!]
  3. Kai-Lung Hui & I.P.L. Png, 2005. "The Economics of Privacy," Industrial Organization 0505007, EconWPA, revised 29 Aug 2005. [Downloadable!]
  4. Curtis Taylor & Liad Wagman, 2008. "Who Benefits From Online Privacy?," Working Papers 08-26, NET Institute, revised Sep 2008. [Downloadable!]
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This page was last updated on 2009-11-19.

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