The Difference Between Platforms for Profit and Platforms That Are Not

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I think you and I could have a conversation every six months on transaction costs. It's very fruitful to talk about it at length and in depth. We haven't talked about some of what we've talked about today. But I want to change our focus just a little bit here, which is this idea of platforms that are for profit and platforms that are not.

Economist and author Michael Munger of Duke University talks about his book, Tomorrow 3.0, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Munger analyzes the rise of companies like Uber and AirBnB as an example of how technology lowers transactions costs. Users and providers can find each other more easily through their smartphones, increasing opportunity. Munger expects these costs to fall elsewhere and predicts an expansion of the sharing economy to a wide array of items in our daily lives.