Internet Exchanges for Used Books
Professors Michael Smith and Rahul Telang note the double-edged impact of a used book market on the new book market. Organizations such as the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers are concerned that internet markets for used book sales will seriously cut into new book sales. However, the presence of a used book market may actually make consumers more willing to buy new books, according to the research of Smith and Rahul Telang in "Reading Between the Lines of Used Book Sales," in the New York Times.
In "Internet Exchanges for Used Books: An Empirical Analysis of Welfare Implications and Policy Issues", authors Ghose, Smith and Telang find that IT-enabled secondary market exchanges increase consumer surplus by approximately $70 million annually.
A web cast by Smith explaining the results of this research is available at http://www.writingshow.com.
Smith's research relates to the nature of structure and competition in electronic markets and facilitating efficient information exchange online. He has worked on questions relating to the efficiency of Internet markets, sources of competitive advantage online, customer behavior at Internet shopbots, and the role of positive and negative network effects in optimal network size in peer-to-peer networks.
Telang's research focus has been economics of Information security and economic models of user choices for technologies. He has been involved in empirical as well as analytical studies of competition and market structures of informations goods networks.