IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_618.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Virtual Worlds: A First-Hand Account of Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier

Author

Listed:
  • Edward Castronova

Abstract

In March 1999, a small number of Californians discovered a new world called "Norrath", populated by an exotic but industrious people. About 12,000 people call this place their permanent home, although some 60,000 are present there at any given time. The nominal hourly wage is about USD 3.42 per hour, and the labors of the people produce a GNP per capita somewhere between that of Russia and Bulgaria. A unit of Norrath's currency is traded on exchange markets at USD 0.0107, higher than the Yen and the Lira. The economy is characterized by extreme inequality, yet life there is quite attractive to many. The population is growing rapidly, swollen each each day by hundreds of imigris from various places around the globe, but especially the United States. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the new world is its location. Norrath is a virtual world that exists entirely on 40 computers in San Diego. Unlike many internet ventures, virtual worlds are making money -- with annual revenues expected to top USD 1.5 billion by 2004 -- and if network effects are as powerful here as they have been with other internet innovations, virtual worlds may soon become the primary venue for all online activity.

Suggested Citation

  • Edward Castronova, 2001. "Virtual Worlds: A First-Hand Account of Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier," CESifo Working Paper Series 618, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_618
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo_wp618.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Easterlin, Richard A, 2001. "Income and Happiness: Towards an Unified Theory," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 111(473), pages 465-484, July.
    2. S. J. Liebowitz & Stephen E. Margolis, 1994. "Network Externality: An Uncommon Tragedy," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 8(2), pages 133-150, Spring.
    3. Michael L. Katz & Carl Shapiro, 1994. "Systems Competition and Network Effects," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 8(2), pages 93-115, Spring.
    4. Stanley M. Besen & Joseph Farrell, 1994. "Choosing How to Compete: Strategies and Tactics in Standardization," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 8(2), pages 117-131, Spring.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Edward Castronova, "undated". "Virtual Worlds: A First-Hand Account of Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier," Gruter Institute Working Papers on Law, Economics, and Evolutionary Biology 2-1-1008, Berkeley Electronic Press.
    2. Stavins, Robert & Jaffe, Adam & Newell, Richard, 2000. "Technological Change and the Environment," Working Paper Series rwp00-002, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    3. Joel West & Jason Dedrick, 2000. "Innovation and Control in Standards Architectures: The Rise and Fall of Japan's PC-98," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 11(2), pages 197-216, June.
    4. Lawrence J. White, "undated". "Technological Change, Financial Innovation, and Financial Regulation: The Challenges for Public Policy," Center for Financial Institutions Working Papers 97-33, Wharton School Center for Financial Institutions, University of Pennsylvania.
    5. Parker Wheatley W., 2012. "Using Experiments to Illustrate the Role of Network Externalities in Technology Adoption and Industry Evolution," Journal of Industrial Organization Education, De Gruyter, vol. 6(1), pages 1-13, December.
    6. Navarro, Noemí, 2012. "Price and quality decisions under network effects," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(5), pages 263-270.
    7. Takahashi, Takuma & Namiki, Fujio, 2003. "Three attempts at "de-Wintelization": Japan's TRON project, the US government's suits against Wintel, and the entry of Java and Linux," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(9), pages 1589-1606, October.
    8. Oz Shy, 2011. "A Short Survey of Network Economics," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 38(2), pages 119-149, March.
    9. Ingo Hofacker, 2000. "Unternehmensnetzwerke zur Durchsetzung eines Standards," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 52(7), pages 643-660, November.
    10. Jackson, Matthew O. & Watts, Alison, 2002. "On the formation of interaction networks in social coordination games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 265-291, November.
    11. Frank Borowicz & Ewald Scherm, 2001. "Standardisierungsstrategien: Eine erweiterte Betrachtung des Wettbewerbs auf Netzeffektmärkten," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 53(4), pages 391-416, June.
    12. H. Peyton Young, 1996. "The Economics of Convention," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 10(2), pages 105-122, Spring.
    13. Yang, Yi-Nung & Barrett, Christopher B., 1997. "Nonconcave, Nonmonotonic Network Externalities," Economics Research Institute, ERI Study Papers 28350, Utah State University, Economics Department.
    14. David S. Evans & Richard Schmalensee, 2002. "Some Economic Aspects of Antitrust Analysis in Dynamically Competitive Industries," NBER Chapters, in: Innovation Policy and the Economy, Volume 2, pages 1-50, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Kinsey, Jean D. & Buhr, Brian L., 2003. "E-Commerce: A New Business Model For The Food Supply/Demand Chain," Working Papers 14320, University of Minnesota, The Food Industry Center.
    16. Nicholas Economides & Lawrence J. White, 1993. "One-Way Networks, Two-Way Networks, Compatibility, and Antitrust," Working Papers 93-14, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.
    17. Jaffe, Adam B. & Newell, Richard G. & Stavins, Robert N., 2003. "Chapter 11 Technological change and the environment," Handbook of Environmental Economics, in: K. G. Mäler & J. R. Vincent (ed.), Handbook of Environmental Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 11, pages 461-516, Elsevier.
    18. Anne Perrot, 1995. "Ouverture à la concurrence dans les réseaux : l'approche stratégique de l'économie des réseaux," Économie et Prévision, Programme National Persée, vol. 119(3), pages 59-71.
    19. Klodt, Henning, 2001. "The Essence of the New Economy," Kiel Discussion Papers 375, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    20. Lawrence White, 2002. "Globalized Securities Markets and Accounting: How Many Standards?," Working Papers 02-11, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.

    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:ces:ceswps:_618. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    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.