While utilizing social networks is common in labor markets and may benefit both firms and laborers, social networks are argued to be unusually important in the popular arts. Prior work in economics on the role of relationships in labor markets has generally focused on the benefits and not the...

pThe credit card market has evolved into what is defined here as a "peacock market." Analogous to extravagant and inefficient male peacock displays, a "peacock market" has developed to become dominated by elaborate signals that are no longer connected in a meaningful way to price, quality, or...