Descriptif

In this course we study the economics of platforms as a key ingredient of the digital economy. In the first part of the course, we study the concept of network effects. We define platforms and build a typology. We discuss their usefulness and different business models. We learn about pricing strategies of monopolist and competing platforms, discuss how a platform can grow and explore non-pricing strategies. In the second part, we apply this knowledge to specific types of platforms (search engines, P2P, etc.) and discuss their related properties. Finally, we discuss the ex ante or ex post regulation of these markets.