Pricing the Eyes of Passersby

Zoe Sherman
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Zoe Sherman: Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA

Review of Radical Political Economics, 2014, vol. 46, issue 4, 502-508

Abstract: This paper explains the growth of the U.S. advertising industry around 1900 by showing how advertisers and advertising professionals established institutions and practices that converted audience attention into a form of tradable property. My empirical work on billposting illuminates the central role that the pursuit of monopoly played in constructing a commodity form of access to pedestrians’ gazes.

Keywords: fictitious commodity; advertising; monopoly (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M37 N00 Z10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:reorpe:v:46:y:2014:i:4:p:502-508

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