Digital Platforms: Competition and Regulation
Digital platforms are on-line services that connect various market participants. These platforms have grown enormously in recent decades and today play a central role in economies around the world. They operate with various revenue models, including selling advertising, charging subscription fees, and charging transaction fees. While some segments of the digital platform economy are highly competitive, there are growing concerns that in others, incumbent firms have established entrenched positions and wield substantial market power. Regulation of platforms has been an active topic of policy debate, with calls for stronger antitrust enforcement in the United States as well as regulatory initiatives in other nations, as illustrated by the recent adoption of the Digital Markets Act in the European Union. To advance research on the economic analysis of digital platforms, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) will convene an in-person research workshop on Thursday, December 5, 2024, in Cambridge, MA. The meeting will be organized by NBER affiliates Nancy Rose and Michael Whinston (MIT), Carl Shapiro (University of California, Berkeley), and Ali Yurukoglu (Stanford).
Research papers are invited on a wide range of issues related to the operation of digital platforms, the degree of competition in the markets that they serve, and the impact of actual or potential regulatory and other public policies that affect them. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- competitive and governance strategies of digital platforms
- strategies employed by, and the obstacles facing, emerging digital platforms seeking to compete against established incumbents.
- prevalence and effects of self-preferencing by digital platforms
- competitive effects and antitrust treatment of conduct and acquisitions by digital platforms
- potential designs for and efficacy of sector-specific regulation of digital platforms
- lessons learned from historical episodes of regulation in other industries, including telecommunications, for the regulation of digital platforms
The organizers welcome submissions of both empirical and theoretical research, including papers by scholars who are early in their careers, who are not NBER affiliates, and who are from groups that are under-represented in the economics profession. Submissions must include brief disclosures summarizing any financial ties between the authors and digital platform firms. In keeping with NBER guidelines, papers may not make policy recommendations.
To be considered for presentation, upload papers by 11:59pm ET on Thursday, September 12, 2024, via this link . Papers that have been accepted for publication and will appear by December 2024 are not eligible. Authors chosen to present papers will be notified in early October.
Questions about this workshop may be addressed to confer@nber.org.