In-class lectures and seminars.
Please note that the structure might change due to the ongoing pandemic.
Industrial Organisation of Hi-Tech Markets. The economics of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT): an introduction. ICT investments in Research and Development (R&D). Small firms grow online. ICT as general-purpose technologies. ICT and information goods. ICT as a product. Facebook: network effects in action. There’s an app for that: a mention to apps pricing issues and strategies. Google: the new Big Brother? ICT, the economic value of information, and related privacy issues.
Digital Markets. Market efficiency. Empirical evidence on digital markets efficiency. Price dispersion on digital markets. Versioning and building. Dynamic pricing.
Network Externalities. Network externalities and critical mass. The dynamics of technology adoption. Competition, compatibility and standardisation. Strategies towards standardisation. Switching costs and network externalities.
Access and Interconnection in Telecommunications. One-way access. Access pricing with imperfect downstream competition. Local loop unbundling. Access and investments: the ladder of investments theory. Two-way access and interconnection. Interconnection fee and collusion. Interconnection and calling rates. Interconnection and the “receving party pays” regime.
Cumulative Innovation in Dynamic Industries. Patents and other appropriability mechanism. Standing on the shoulders of giants. Patent thickets and anticommons. The issue of weak patents.
High-technology industry and growth. Innovation and Growth: The Schumpeterian Perspective. Cross-country comparative analysis.
Recommended textbook
Further readings