Last year, I applied to a prestigious PhD program in International Economics. Unfortunately, I did not get accepted, but I have continued independent research on my general thesis.
My goal was to dig deeper into and integrate a few of the key themes that have been percolating in my brain for the last 30 years. Whether it’s academic research or the perfect job, I aim to study, design, and operationalize the next generation of digital inclusion economics in a world of AI and emerging markets.
The Intellectual Thread
My fascination began with Stigler’s Search Theory, the idea that information has cost and that market efficiency depends on reducing it. Receiving my first online order in 1993 from Mexico, a $100k order from a large tech company that found me through the then-local directory Yahoo!, culminating in a multi-million-dollar order from Japan. All because they saw me via a search engine. This solidified, without a doubt, that the internet would, in effect, remove a significant amount of friction and information asymmetry, and take me away from academia into entrepreneurship, consulting with some of the biggest companies in the world on how to use the Internet to Reach Overseas markets.
I observed the same principle at work while developing multinational digital transformation and online marketing programs for multinationals – when information and booking moved online, local economies experienced growth. Leakage decreased. Efficiency increased.
But data alone doesn’t equal progress. The missing piece is enablement—what I now call the last digital meter. It’s not about bandwidth or access; it’s about the knowledge and trust to utilize the existing tools. One of the biggest takeaways from my graduate studies at the Fletcher School was that, despite significant investments and good intentions, many development market projects fail due to a lack of integration on the ground in the village and with the people who are expected to participate. That’s where my concept of a Digital Peace Corps was born: a bridge between infrastructure and empowerment.
I. The Problem That Started It All
In 1961, George Stigler reframed economics by quantifying the cost of information. His Search Theory explained why markets fail when information is incomplete and why the act of finding knowledge is itself an economic activity.
Six decades later, search has become almost frictionless—at least technically. Yet global inequality in access, understanding, and participation persists. While algorithms find answers in milliseconds, entire communities remain invisible to digital markets.
This paradox—the coexistence of frictionless search and uneven inclusion—is at the heart of my research vision.
II. Connecting Three Intellectual Threads
My research sits at the intersection of economic theory, digital transformation, and human enablement. What began as separate curiosities now form a single continuum of inquiry:
- Search Theory and Its Modernization
- Stigler’s model defined search as a human decision problem under imperfect information.
- Today, autonomous agents and recommendation systems conduct searches for us, fundamentally changing market dynamics.
- I aim to update this model to reflect a world of algorithmic searchers and AI-mediated exchange—what I call “Search Without Searchers.”
- Digital Transformation and Macroeconomic Impact
- My graduate research explored how the Internet transforms GDP growth in emerging markets by reducing leakage between local producers and global consumers.
- Platforms like Amazon and Booking.com validated the thesis: reducing search and transaction friction raises national efficiency.
- Yet, without institutional readiness, these gains remain uneven and sometimes extractive.
- Digital Enablement and Policy Innovation
- Even with infrastructure, inclusion fails when people lack the necessary capabilities.
- I proposed a Digital Peace Corps: an applied industrial policy initiative that deploys trained specialists to bridge the “last digital meter” — ensuring tools, skills, and trust structures exist where they are most needed.
- This operational layer converts digital access into economic agency.
Together, these three strands form a unified research question:
How does the reduction of informational and transactional friction through digital systems reshape market efficiency, inclusion, and growth—and what institutional structures are required to sustain that transformation?
III. The Research Vision
Theoretical Goal:
Modernize Stigler’s search model to include autonomous agents, data markets, and algorithmic mediation—quantifying the new “cost of information” in an AI-driven economy.
Empirical Goal:
Measure how reductions in digital friction (connectivity, transparency, capability) correlate with macroeconomic indicators like productivity and inclusion, especially in emerging markets.
Policy Goal:
Design frameworks for “Digital Enablement Policy,” integrating education, infrastructure, and institutional collaboration through a global Digital Peace Corps initiative.
This multi-level model—from micro search cost to macro inclusion impact—can help governments and global institutions move from access metrics (devices, bandwidth) to effectiveness metrics (skills, adoption, GDP leverage).
IV. The Perfect Job
My ideal role merges research, policy design, and systems building. It would allow me to:
- Study how digital systems alter market efficiency through AI and automation.
- Advise governments and international organizations on reducing structural digital friction.
- Operationalize inclusion through scalable enablement programs that convert connectivity into capability.
In essence, I want to design the economic and policy architectures that turn information efficiency into inclusive prosperity.
That means working where theory, technology, and human development intersect—bridging academic inquiry, corporate innovation, and public policy.
V. Expected Impact
The outcomes of this work could include:
- A modernized Stigler model quantifying AI-driven information efficiency.
- A Digital Search Efficiency Index (DSEI) linking digital readiness to GDP growth.
- A Digital Peace Corps blueprint for capacity-building and sustainable inclusion.
Each outcome advances a single idea:
Reducing friction is no longer a technical challenge—it’s a human one.
VI. Closing Reflection
The first digital revolution connected people to information.
The next must connect information to empowerment.
From search friction to digital inclusion, my mission is to help design the systems—economic, digital, and educational—that ensure no market, no idea, and no person remains undiscoverable.
