New York AG treating Airbnb customers to fishing expedition
Eric Schneiderman, New York’s attorney general, has issued a subpoena to Airbnb to request data on all users in New York who have ever used the popular Internet service to rent their homes. Airbnb...
View ArticleUpcoming R Street tech policy briefings
Please join us for two days of tech policy briefings followed by a networking happy hour at Capitol Lounge presented by the R Street Institute and Generation Opportunity. Please RSVP separately to each...
View ArticleHow Uber and Airbnb resurrect ‘dead capital’
Arguably the two biggest economic stories of the last decade are the Great Recession and the rise of a category of new businesses that turn noncommercial capital and individuals’ spare time into...
View ArticleRidesharing, insurance and regulation
ALEC’s Cara Sullivan had a good post earlier this week on the American Legislator blog about the importance of balancing consumer protection with innovation in the ride-on-demand services (frequently...
View ArticleResponding to Coppage and Gobry on the sharing economy
This morning in the American Conservative, Jonathan Coppage writes about “The Sharing Economy’s Undead Capital, and Its Discontents,” commenting on my essay in The Ümlaut last week, as well as...
View ArticleRenters and rent-seeking in San Francisco
As anyone who’s lived in a major coastal American city knows, apartment renting is about as far from an unregulated free market as you can get. Legal and regulatory stipulations govern rents and rent...
View ArticleHow to tax sharing
Across the nation, so-called “peer production businesses” have become a common feature of the urban landscape, and cities are scrambling to figure out how to tax and regulate them. From the short-term...
View ArticleDifferentiation within the peer production economy
Earlier this week, Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry posted a long and thoughtful comment on my response to his Forbes piece on the sharing economy from last week. I wanted to follow up with a few additional (and...
View ArticlePeer production enters the kitchen
There’s another peer production platform for regulators, taxmen, and assorted other busybodies to get the vapors about: Feastly, the “Airbnb of dinner.” Feastly follows a pretty typical peer-to-peer...
View ArticleBucking the ‘mother, may I?’ mentality
“Permissionless innovation” is what we call the unconstrained tinkering and continuous exploration that takes place at multiple levels across the digital economy today, from professional creators to...
View ArticleUniversity of California has strong opinions on peer-to-peer business
Earlier this week, the University of California’s Office of the President (UCOP) determined that, as a result of a perceived shortfall in regulation, it would not reimburse faculty members who use...
View ArticleFive principles for regulating the peer production economy
The attached paper was co-authored by R Street Executive Director Andrew Moylan. Economic history over the last 200 years is largely the story of the industrial move from small-scale domestic...
View ArticleThe peer production economy should be allowed to succeed without heavy...
WASHINGTON (July 29, 2014) – Emerging “peer production” markets could unlock trillions in previously dormant capital, making it essential that lawmakers and regulators do not strangle these new...
View ArticleUber, Lyft and Houston’s policy leadership
Under the guise of needing to review a list of new amendments, the Houston City Council this week once again delayed a vote on granting legal status to vehicle-for-hire services like Uber, Lyft and...
View ArticleThe sharing economy will thrive only if government doesn’t strangle it
The so-called sharing economy is many things to many people. To Wall Street and Silicon Valley, firms like Uber and Airbnb offer tantalizing market capitalizations, the likes of which have not been...
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R Street testimony to Houston City Council on ridesharing
Remarks by Steven Titch Associate Fellow, R Street Institute Re: Legalization of ride-sharing services Houston City Council meeting Aug. 5, 2014 Good Afternoon, I would like to thank the City...
View ArticleAirbnb helps, not hurts, SF housing shortage
San Francisco is in the midst of a housing shortage, fueled by huge demand and exacerbated by decades of wrongheaded regulatory intervention and, more recently, by professional troglodytes. Firms such...
View ArticleTNC battle ends with Gov. Brown’s signature
Gov. Jerry Brown has lent his signature to compromise legislation that clarifies how and when transportation network companies are commercially insured. Sponsored by Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla,...
View ArticleEmbracing the peer-production economy
(The attached paper, co-authored by R Street Executive Director Andrew Moylan, appear in the Fall 2014 edition of National Affairs.) Enthusiasts of the growing “peer-production” or “sharing” economy...
View ArticleConservatives should champion the free-market system of the peer-production...
WASHINGTON (September 22, 2014) – Regulation of the “peer production” or “sharing” economy can be a good political issue for both the left and the right, argue R Street President Eli Lehrer and R...
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