Michael Wolraich: I have tools in my house that I'm pretty sure came from handy, handymen and contractors who just left them here. And so now to me that's just a, I love that gift aspect of book lending. But with a power tool, it's not such an easy. Right? So of course, you asked about anticipating questions. My question about the drill is, why don't we have that already? He says he wants to talk about the different kinds of transaction costs - how that creates a set of limits on potentially on what can be shared and what can't be,. or what is unlikely to be shared because it doesn't work economically.
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.