579. Are You Caught in a Social Media Trap?

Economists have discovered an odd phenomenon: many people who use social media (even you, maybe?) wish it didn’t exist. But that doesn’t mean they can escape.

 

SOURCES:Leonardo Bursztyn, professor of economics at the University of Chicago.Benjamin Handel, professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley.

 

RESOURCES:"When Product Markets Become Collective Traps: The Case of Social Media," by Leonardo Bursztyn, Benjamin Handel, Rafael Jimenez, and Christopher Roth (NBER Working Paper, 2023)."Social Media and Xenophobia: Evidence from Russia," by Leonardo Bursztyn, Georgy Egorov, Ruben Enikolopov, and Maria Petrova (NBER Working Paper, 2019)."Status Goods: Experimental Evidence from Platinum Credit Cards," by Leonardo Bursztyn, Bruno Ferman, Stefano Fiorin, Martin Kanz, and Gautam Rao (NBER Working Paper, 2017)."'Acting Wife': Marriage Market Incentives and Labor Market Investments," by Leonardo Bursztyn, Thomas Fujiwara, and Amanda Pallais (American Economic Review, 2017)."Measuring Crack Cocaine and Its Impact," by Roland G. Fryer Jr., Paul S. Heaton, Steven D. Levitt, and Kevin M. Murphy (Economic Inquiry, 2013).

 

EXTRAS:"Is Facebook Bad for Your Mental Health?" by Freakonomics, M.D. (2022)."Why Is U.S. Media So Negative?" by Freakonomics Radio (2021).