Contact Information:
Heinz College
Carnegie Mellon University
4800 Forbes Avenue, HBH 2204
Pittsburgh PA, 15213
Email: mds@cmu.edu
Voice: 412-268-5978
Fax: 412-268-5338
Office: Hamburg Hall 2204
Assistant: Kristen Yeager (Cubicle Outside HBH 2204 | 412-268-7148)
SSRN Author Page
Updates:
- January-23: I was interviewed by CHCH TV about how increased competition is changing how Netflix renews series.
- December-22: I was quoted in a Variety story about channel consolidation in the cable industry.
- November-22: I was quoted in a story in the Observer about Disney’s streaming strategy.
- November-22: I participated in a panel discussion titled “Student Debt and the Future of Higher Education” moderated by Danielle Douglas-Gabriel of the Washington Post.
- October-22: I was interviewed by USA Today on the price increases for Apple Music, Apple TV, and Apple One.
- October-22: I appeared on the Technology Policy Institute’s “Two Think Minimum” podcast to discuss technological disruption and the future of higher education.
- October-22: I was interviewed by Lifewire about the Supreme Court’s decision to hear two cases regarding social media platform’s legal liability for algorithmically promoting harmful videos.
- October-22: I was interviewed by CNBC about whether social media companies should face legal liability for content posted by users.
- September-22: I was interviewed by NPR about Netflix’s ability to compete in an increasingly crowded streaming market.
- September-22: I was quoted in an NPR story about why Disney chooses to release some movies in theaters and some direct to streaming on Disney+
- August-22: I was quoted in a story about the streaming wars and measuring streaming.
- August-22: My research paper with Helen Zeng and Brett Danaher was published in Management Science. Our study analyzes the impact of the near simultaneous shutdown of Backpage and Craigslist’s commercial sex advertising platforms on several outcome variables, notably violence against women in the form of female homicides and rapes. We find no impact of these shutdowns on any of the outcome variables we study.
- August-22: I was quoted in a Variety story about streaming platforms, and the importance of brand and data for attracting and retaining customers.
- June-22: I published an editorial in The Hill discussing President Biden’s proposal to forgive student loan debt.
- April-22: I was quoted by The Hill in a story about the future of CNN+ and other streaming news platforms.
- April-22: I was quoted in a story about Netflix’s new “two-thumbs up” features and how it helps the platform better understand its user’s preferences.
- March-22: I gave a talk to the Virtual Digital Economy Seminar titled “The Abundant University: Remaking Higher Education for a Digital World”
- January-22: I have a co-authored paper titled “Bestseller Lists and Product Discovery in the Subscription-based Market: Evidence from Music Streaming” which is forthcoming in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. In the paper we analyze the impact of bestseller lists on song discovery, and find that being added to the top 100 chart on a major Korean streaming platform causes an 11-13% increase in song discovery.