Project description
A closer look at e-commerce giants
Online platforms, such as Amazon, Alibaba and Google, have grown into e-commerce giants. They are an important part of the digital economy, generating billions of euros in net sales. The EU regulation on fairness and transparency in online platform-to-business relationships puts in place a harmonised framework for minimum transparency and redressing rights. The EU-funded DIPVAR project will investigate effective policy recommendations for competition policy in digital markets that can greatly improve consumer welfare in the EU. It will develop models of markets with digital platforms and review implications of digital platforms' business practices on prices, variety and quality provision to buyers, on small rivals, and on potential platform entry. The findings will shed light on potential distortions in these enormously lucrative markets.
Objective
Digital platforms, such as Amazon, Alibaba, Google, have become important global players. Their practices have led to significant anti-trust and regulatory scrutiny, and interventions. The existing theoretical models are not suited for the analysis of most of digital platforms as they fail to capture their important aspects and dynamics. This projects first goal is to develop tractable and applicable models of markets with digital platforms capturing their unique features. The second goal is to investigate the implications of digital platforms business practices on prices, variety and quality provision to buyers, on small rivals, and on potential platform entry. I plan to attain these goals via two work packages: WP1 will provide a tractable framework capturing important characteristics of online market places and can thus be used to analyze e-commerce platforms optimal seller contracts and the implied variety offered to consumers. After illustrating an equivalence between a trade platform and a multiproduct monopolist, WP1 will identify with which demand systems and information structure multiproduct firms under-/over-provide variety. Using equivalence conditions WP1 will study whether, how, and when the variety implied by platforms pricing diverges from the social optimality and which type of seller contracts could mitigate such distortions. WP2 will provide tractable and applicable models to study competition between asymmetric platforms to attract high quality sellers. WP2 will analyze how platforms restrictions on users multi-homing (participating in multiple platforms) and restrictions on switching behavior of users affect market allocation, quality provision, prices, entry and dynamics. The findings of this project will highlight potential distortions in these multi-billion markets and ultimately suggest effective policy recommendations for competition policy in digital markets, which can greatly improve consumer welfare in the EU.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
ERC-STG - Starting Grant
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2019-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
50014 Fiesole
Italy
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.