The Catalyst Series

Where Business, Policy and Innovation Intersect To Create Prosperity

A monthly series by economist and author David S. Evans.

Prosperity doesn’t just happen. It results from people – in businesses, in government and by themselves – coming up with new ways to combine scarce resources or create new ideas from thin air. They are the catalysts for driving economic growth, often for the common good. They do this on a backdrop of dynamic markets, disruptive innovation and government policies, for better or worse.

The Catalyst Series, from economist and author David S. Evans, offers insights into how that works, or doesn’t work, and how to make it work better.

The Catalyst Series extends insights developed in his Catalyst Code: The Strategies of the World’s Most Dynamic Companies, co-authored with Richard Schmalensee, and Evans’ other work on starting, igniting and growing platform-based businesses.

Read Evans’ new series as it develops.

About the Author

David S. Evans is an economist who has published more than 10 books and 200 articles, many related to entrepreneurship, platforms, the digital economy and competition policy. He is chairman and co-founder of Market Platform Dynamics. He has taught at University College London and the University of Chicago Law School. For more details, see davidsevans.org.

David S. Evans
David S. Evans

ALSO FROM EVANS

MatchMakers
Invisible Engines
Friction Fighters

Written By David S. Evans

David S. Evans
What Lighting a Fire Tells Us About Igniting Threads and...

It never hurts to brush up on basic skills, like how to make a...

David S. Evans
To Reap Digital Gold Look for Kludge, Hope for Inspiration

If you want to come up with the next big thing for digital transformation,...

David S. Evans
How Airbnb and 18th-Century Newspapers Found Profits from Frictions 

Brian Chesky says that Airbnb is broken and he’s going to fix it.   Get the...

Netflix
David S. Evans
How Netflix Shows the Importance of Getting Innovation’s Timing Right

There Are Ghosts, of Course A bit more than 25 years ago, on March...

artificial intelligence
The Demographic Debacle Meets the AI Miracle

The world is now witnessing one of the most momentous and consequential changes in...

artificial intelligence
A Tale of Two GPTs

Except perhaps for those who have been completely off the grid for the last...

Cryptocurrency
A Pragmatic Guide to the Future of Crypto

This paper provides a pragmatic assessment of the future of crypto. As used here,...

David S. Evans
Why Apple Pay Is Fizzling and What It Means for...

“When he rolls into a gas station to fill his tank, [Jack] doesn’t get...