Economic Research on Privacy Regulation: Lessons from the GDPR and Beyond

Garrett Johnson

No 30705, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper reviews the economic literature on the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). I highlight key challenges for studying the regulation including the difficulty of finding a suitable control group, variable firm compliance and regulatory enforcement, as well as the regulation's impact on data observability. The economic literature on the GDPR to date has largely—though not universally—documented harms to firms. These harms include firm performance, innovation, competition, the web, and marketing. On the elusive consumer welfare side, the literature documents some objective privacy improvements as well as helpful survey evidence. The literature also examines the consequences of the GDPR's design decisions and illuminates how the GDPR works in practice. Finally, I suggest opportunities for future research on the GDPR as well as privacy regulation and privacy-related innovation more broadly.

JEL-codes: K2 L51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-law and nep-reg
Note: IO LE PE
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Published as Economic Research on Privacy Regulation: Lessons from the GDPR and Beyond , Garrett A. Johnson. in The Economics of Privacy , Goldfarb and Tucker. 2024

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