The Closed Market: Platform Design and the Computerization of Economics

The platform firm has emerged as an important site for the production of economic knowledge. This paper situates the work performed by a newly christened group of “tech economists” under the auspices of these firms within a larger history of economists’ engagement with information processing. Previously, those economists wishing to grapple with the computer would ally with the military, eventually leading them to accept an understanding of markets as purpose-built, algorithmic “person-machine systems.” Upon allying with the platform firm, economists would attune their understanding to the business model of their new patrons. This paper considers what this development augurs for the profession.