Hal R Varian
Biographic Data
| ID | 296916 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Hal R Varian |
| GIVEN NAMES | Hal R |
| FAMILY NAME | Varian |
| SIGNATURE | VARIAN H R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Michigan |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 305 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1974 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Grundzüge der Mikroökonomik
Big Data: New Tricks for Econometrics
Computers are now involved in many economic transactions and can capture data associated with these transactions, which can then be manipulated and analyzed. Conventional statistical and econometric techniques such as regression often work well, but there are issues unique to big datasets that may require different tools. First, the sheer size of the data involved may require more powerful data manipulation tools. Second, we may have more potenti…
Predicting the Present with Google Trends
In this paper we show how to use search engine data to forecast near‐term values of economic indicators. Examples include automobile sales, unemployment claims, travel destination planning and consumer confidence.
Revealed Preference and Its Applications
This note contains a short history of my work on the foundations of revealed preference, emphasising the intellectual influence of Sydney Afriat. I also present a few 'novel' applications of revealed preference analysis drawn from some areas of applied economics
Copying and Copyright
oday most newly created textual, photographic, audio and video content is available in digital form. Even older content that was not "born digital" can relatively easily be converted to machine-readable formats. At the same time, the world has become more networked, making it easy to transfer digital content from one person to another. The combination of technological progress in both digitization and computer networking has been a challenge for …
Circulating libraries and video rental stores
We describe a number of interesting parallels between circulating libraries in England circa 1725-1850 and video rental stores in the United States circa 1980-1990. Both institutions evolved in a similar manner, which suggests that common economic and social forces were at work. Perhaps the histories of these two industries may be helpful in understanding current and future developments in computer- and Internet-related media
The AEA's Electronic Publishing Plans: A Progress Report
This paper describes the American Economic Association's electronic publishing plans. Special attention is given to the JSTOR project and to pricing issues. There is also some speculation about how journals and publication will evolve in this new medium
Differential Pricing and Efficiency
The classic prescription for economically efficient pricing---set price at marginal cost---is not relevant for technologies that exhibit the kinds of increasing returns to scale, large fixed costs, or economies of scope found in the telecommunications and information industries. The appropriate guiding principle in these contexts should be that the marginal willingness to pay should be equal to marginal cost. This condition for efficiency can be …
Economic FAQs About the Internet
This is a set for frequently asked questions (and answers) about the economic, institutional, and technological structure of the Internet. The authors describe the current state of the Internet, discuss some of the pressing economic and regulatory problems, and speculate about future developments
Handbook of Game Theory: With Economic Applications, Volume I
Journal Article Handbook of Game Theory: With Economic Applications, Volume I Get access Handbook of Game Theory: With Economic Applications, Volume 1. Edited by (Robert J.) Aumann and Hart (Sergiu). (Amsterdam, New York and Oxford: North-Holland, 1992. Pp. xxvi + 733. Dfl. 250.00 hardback, US $87.50 hardback. ISBN 0 444 88098 4.) Hal R. Varian Hal R. Varian University of Michigan Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google S…
Markets for public goods
There is a presumption in some circles that the identification of an externality or a public good presents a prima facie case for government intervention. Tyler Cowen has assembled a group of articles that challenge this view by arguing that the market, broadly construed, can handle many problems of public goods and externalities that are normally considered the province of the state. Although these articles present a stimulating perspective on p…
A Portfolio of Nobel Laureates: Markowitz, Miller and Sharpe
Three pioneers of quantitative finance have now been justly honored: Harry Markowitz, Merton Miller, and William Sharpe received the Nobel Prize in Economic Science in 1990. From today's perspective it is hard to understand what finance was like before portfolio theory. Here I attempt to provide a very brief history of the quantitative revolution in finance, drawing upon P. Bernstein's Capital Ideas (1992) and accounts of the three Nobel laureate…
Symposium on Takeovers
Of the hundred largest mergers and acquisitions on record up to 1984, 65 occurred between 1981 and 1983, and only 11 occurred prior to 1979. During the 1981-84 period, there were at least 45 transactions of over a billion dollars apiece; prior to this period there were only a dozen or so transactions of such magnitude. What is the meaning of this “merger mania?” Why did it occur so suddenly? Is the wave of takeovers merely a speculative bubble, o…
The Arbitrage Principle in Financial Economics
The importance of arbitrage conditions in financial economics has been recognized since Modigliani and Miller's classic work on the financial structure of the firm. They showed that if a firm could change its market value by purely financial operations such as adjusting its debtequity ratio, then individual shareholders and bondholders could engage in analogous portfolio transactions that would yield pure arbitrage profits. If the market was effi…
On the private provision of public goods
The Nonparametric Approach to Demand Analysis
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at
Redistributive taxation as social insurance
The Stability of a Disequilibrium IS-LM Model
Equity, envy, and efficiency
On the private provision of public goods
Big Data: New Tricks for Econometrics
Computers are now involved in many economic transactions and can capture data associated with these transactions, which can then be manipulated and analyzed. Conventional statistical and econometric techniques such as regression often work well, but there are issues unique to big datasets that may require different tools. First, the sheer size of the data involved may require more powerful data manipulation tools. Second, we may have more potenti…
Copying and Copyright
oday most newly created textual, photographic, audio and video content is available in digital form. Even older content that was not "born digital" can relatively easily be converted to machine-readable formats. At the same time, the world has become more networked, making it easy to transfer digital content from one person to another. The combination of technological progress in both digitization and computer networking has been a challenge for …
The Arbitrage Principle in Financial Economics
The importance of arbitrage conditions in financial economics has been recognized since Modigliani and Miller's classic work on the financial structure of the firm. They showed that if a firm could change its market value by purely financial operations such as adjusting its debtequity ratio, then individual shareholders and bondholders could engage in analogous portfolio transactions that would yield pure arbitrage profits. If the market was effi…
Markets for public goods
There is a presumption in some circles that the identification of an externality or a public good presents a prima facie case for government intervention. Tyler Cowen has assembled a group of articles that challenge this view by arguing that the market, broadly construed, can handle many problems of public goods and externalities that are normally considered the province of the state. Although these articles present a stimulating perspective on p…
Revealed Preference and Its Applications
This note contains a short history of my work on the foundations of revealed preference, emphasising the intellectual influence of Sydney Afriat. I also present a few 'novel' applications of revealed preference analysis drawn from some areas of applied economics
A Portfolio of Nobel Laureates: Markowitz, Miller and Sharpe
Three pioneers of quantitative finance have now been justly honored: Harry Markowitz, Merton Miller, and William Sharpe received the Nobel Prize in Economic Science in 1990. From today's perspective it is hard to understand what finance was like before portfolio theory. Here I attempt to provide a very brief history of the quantitative revolution in finance, drawing upon P. Bernstein's Capital Ideas (1992) and accounts of the three Nobel laureate…
Equity, envy, and efficiency
The Stability of a Disequilibrium IS-LM Model
Redistributive taxation as social insurance
The Nonparametric Approach to Demand Analysis
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at
On the private provision of public goods
The Arbitrage Principle in Financial Economics
The importance of arbitrage conditions in financial economics has been recognized since Modigliani and Miller's classic work on the financial structure of the firm. They showed that if a firm could change its market value by purely financial operations such as adjusting its debtequity ratio, then individual shareholders and bondholders could engage in analogous portfolio transactions that would yield pure arbitrage profits. If the market was effi…
Symposium on Takeovers
Of the hundred largest mergers and acquisitions on record up to 1984, 65 occurred between 1981 and 1983, and only 11 occurred prior to 1979. During the 1981-84 period, there were at least 45 transactions of over a billion dollars apiece; prior to this period there were only a dozen or so transactions of such magnitude. What is the meaning of this “merger mania?” Why did it occur so suddenly? Is the wave of takeovers merely a speculative bubble, o…
Handbook of Game Theory: With Economic Applications, Volume I
Journal Article Handbook of Game Theory: With Economic Applications, Volume I Get access Handbook of Game Theory: With Economic Applications, Volume 1. Edited by (Robert J.) Aumann and Hart (Sergiu). (Amsterdam, New York and Oxford: North-Holland, 1992. Pp. xxvi + 733. Dfl. 250.00 hardback, US $87.50 hardback. ISBN 0 444 88098 4.) Hal R. Varian Hal R. Varian University of Michigan Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google S…
Markets for public goods
There is a presumption in some circles that the identification of an externality or a public good presents a prima facie case for government intervention. Tyler Cowen has assembled a group of articles that challenge this view by arguing that the market, broadly construed, can handle many problems of public goods and externalities that are normally considered the province of the state. Although these articles present a stimulating perspective on p…
A Portfolio of Nobel Laureates: Markowitz, Miller and Sharpe
Three pioneers of quantitative finance have now been justly honored: Harry Markowitz, Merton Miller, and William Sharpe received the Nobel Prize in Economic Science in 1990. From today's perspective it is hard to understand what finance was like before portfolio theory. Here I attempt to provide a very brief history of the quantitative revolution in finance, drawing upon P. Bernstein's Capital Ideas (1992) and accounts of the three Nobel laureate…
Economic FAQs About the Internet
This is a set for frequently asked questions (and answers) about the economic, institutional, and technological structure of the Internet. The authors describe the current state of the Internet, discuss some of the pressing economic and regulatory problems, and speculate about future developments
Differential Pricing and Efficiency
The classic prescription for economically efficient pricing---set price at marginal cost---is not relevant for technologies that exhibit the kinds of increasing returns to scale, large fixed costs, or economies of scope found in the telecommunications and information industries. The appropriate guiding principle in these contexts should be that the marginal willingness to pay should be equal to marginal cost. This condition for efficiency can be …
The AEA's Electronic Publishing Plans: A Progress Report
This paper describes the American Economic Association's electronic publishing plans. Special attention is given to the JSTOR project and to pricing issues. There is also some speculation about how journals and publication will evolve in this new medium
Circulating libraries and video rental stores
We describe a number of interesting parallels between circulating libraries in England circa 1725-1850 and video rental stores in the United States circa 1980-1990. Both institutions evolved in a similar manner, which suggests that common economic and social forces were at work. Perhaps the histories of these two industries may be helpful in understanding current and future developments in computer- and Internet-related media
Copying and Copyright
oday most newly created textual, photographic, audio and video content is available in digital form. Even older content that was not "born digital" can relatively easily be converted to machine-readable formats. At the same time, the world has become more networked, making it easy to transfer digital content from one person to another. The combination of technological progress in both digitization and computer networking has been a challenge for …
Predicting the Present with Google Trends
In this paper we show how to use search engine data to forecast near‐term values of economic indicators. Examples include automobile sales, unemployment claims, travel destination planning and consumer confidence.
Revealed Preference and Its Applications
This note contains a short history of my work on the foundations of revealed preference, emphasising the intellectual influence of Sydney Afriat. I also present a few 'novel' applications of revealed preference analysis drawn from some areas of applied economics
Grundzüge der Mikroökonomik
Big Data: New Tricks for Econometrics
Computers are now involved in many economic transactions and can capture data associated with these transactions, which can then be manipulated and analyzed. Conventional statistical and econometric techniques such as regression often work well, but there are issues unique to big datasets that may require different tools. First, the sheer size of the data involved may require more powerful data manipulation tools. Second, we may have more potenti…
Economics (13 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Business (7 works) · Economic theories and models (7 works) · Political science (7 works) · Microeconomics (6 works) · Econometrics (5 works) · Consumer Market Behavior and Pricing (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Mathematical economics (4 works)