Centre for Economic and Regional Studies Hungarian Academy of Sciences Centre of Excellence

Start: 04/19/2018 09:00

End: 04/20/2018 18:00

Location: Hotel Palatinus (7621 Pécs, 5 Király Street, Hungary)

Description

Concerning the European Commission’s report (COM(2017) 33) “The transition towards a more circular economy brings great opportunities for Europe and its citizens. It is an important part of our efforts to modernise and transform the European economy, shifting it towards a more sustainable direction.” Beside legislative and policy proposals what are the most important aspects shifting towards a circular economy? Register to our conference and tell us your viewpoints!

Start: 04/19/2018 14:00

End: 04/19/2018 16:00

Location: MTA Humán Tudományok Kutatóháza, Budapest, Tóth Kálmán utca 4. fszt. K13.

Description

Zawadowski Ádám / CEU /

The Tragedy of Complexity

This paper presents an equilibrium theory of product complexity. Complex products generate higher potential surplus, but require more attention from consumers. Because consumer attention is limited and a common resource across products, an attention externality arises: Sellers distort the complexity of their own products to divert attention from other products. In contrast to the classic tragedy of the commons, this externality can lead to too much or too little complexity. Paradoxically, increases in information processing capacity that relax the consumer’s attention constraint can make it more likely that products are overly complex compared with the social optimum.