Tuesday's Assorted Links
Ticket resellers, police robots, cereal, dollar stores, and fall foliage
Hi y’all! Here are five stories from this week that contained some neat applications of economic principles or are related to teaching:
For all those ticket resellers who thought they found an arbitrage opportunity, the IRS would like their share of your profit [Gizmodo]
Automation is coming for NYPD police officers who happen to be stationed in the Times Square subway station [The New York Times]
Cereal is in a long-term decline as young Americans prefer alternative breakfast options [The Wall Street Journal]
The economics of dollar stores [The Hustle | YouTube]
Fall foliage tourists cause a variety of negative externalities, but one town in Vermont has asked tourists to travel elsewhere [NBC News]
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Last Friday, Netflix sent out its last red envelope and officially ended its DVD subscription program after 25 years in operation. The company that was famous for causing Blockbuster’s bankruptcy never faced any serious competition in the entertainment-by-mail space. But why? It turns out that the industry structure supported a natural monopoly.
How Netflix Ruled as a Natural Monopoly of Home Entertainment by Mail
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Blockbuster Video was the undisputed king of the movie rental business. With thousands of brick-and-mortar stores scattered across the United States, Blockbuster provided families with access to a vast catalog of films. But then,