Cybersecurity: Integrating Information into the Microeconomics of the Consumer and the Firm

Abstract

The connectivity of information has changed many things but not the way economists model consumers, firms and government. Information is here newly modeled as a fundamental element of microeconomic choices and utility, cost and tax functions. The results are more clearly defined metrics for losses due to cyber breaches or productivity gains from cyber investments. The integration of information into standard microeconomics also allows use of econometric and other tools to analyze the empirics of the consumer and the firm. In particular, the results identify ways in which losses in the Gordon and Loeb [1] model can be specified in more detail.