I've loved working on this paper. The idea is very simple, yet it's not something that, you know, I've been around for a long time doing economics. It's not something that really seems to be in the consciousness.

Ben Handel is an economist at the University of California Berkeley.

The paper he loved working on was a collaboration with

Raphael Jimenez, Christopher Roth, and Leonardo Burstein. And what was this simple but overlooked

idea?

Here is Burstein.

It is possible that when you don't consume a product,

you face a big cost.

And what kind of product can be costly even if you don't consume it?

Well, consider the title of their paper,

when product markets become collective traps.

And now consider one of the survey questions they asked

their research subjects. We decided to ask a very simple question which is

would you prefer to live in a world with or without Tik-Tok or Instagram.

Today on Freakinomics Radio, is social media a trap

that most of us wish we never got caught in?

That's right after the...

Hey, let's whistle it together. This is Freckanomics Radio, the podcast that explores the hidden side of everything

with your host Stephen Dubner.

Leonardo Burstein

Leinardo Burstein teaches at the University of Chicago.

I have been focusing my research. Nardo Burstein teaches at the University of Chicago.

...