On Sat, 13 Jan 1996, Simon Spero wrote:
This came up at the bay area cyherpunks meeting - I haven't got the full citation, but the orignal paper was by Sherwin Rosen of the University of Chicago; it was published in 1981, under the title "The Economics of Superstars" - I think it might be in:
TITLE: Studies in labor markets / edited by Sherwin Rosen. PUBLICATION: Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1981. DESCRIPTION: ix, 395 p. ; 24 cm. SERIES: Conference report / Universities--National Bureau Committee for Economic Research ; no. 31
For anotehr view suggesting that Rosen is himself dazzled by superstars, see The Other Path, by Hernando de Soto, ISBN 0-06-091640-0 (paperback) and 0-06-016020-9 (hard). This is the 260-page executive summary of a study of the "informal economy" in the major Peruvian cities. I think the expanded El otro sendero with statistical appendices is only available in Spanish. Title refers to Sendero Luminoso, a particularly bizarre Maoist cult that has been brutally repressed by Fujimori in recent years. De Soto argues that the masses are a lot smarter than most economists and governments think, that most humans are entrepreneurs, and that the informal economy serves people a lot better than either Fordist capitalism or a "communist" revolution. As if anyone has time to read such a thing. -rich