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 pro-cessing. Previously, those economists wishing to grapple with the computer would ally with the military, eventually leading them to accept an under-standing of markets as purpose-built, algorithmic "person-machine sys-tems." Upon allying with the platform firm, economists would attune their understanding to the business model of their new patrons. This paper con-siders what this development augurs for the profession.