European Economics: Microeconomics & Industrial Organization eJournal最新文献

{"title":"Le consommateur européen face à l’intelligence artificielle – Quel cadre règlementaire au sein du marché unique numérique ? (The European Consumer and Artificial Intelligence - What Regulatory Framework within the Digital Single Market'?)","authors":"Eva Thelisson, Marion Ho-Dac","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3897287","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3897287","url":null,"abstract":"French Abstract: La culture chinoise considère toute situation comme un processus en mouvement ou encore comme une « transformation silencieuse » . Le tournant digital que nous vivons aujourd’hui s’apparente certainement à ce type de mutation imperceptible qui redessine en profondeur les relations économiques et sociales et, en leur sein, les rapports contractuels de consommation. Ces rapports « B2C » (pour « business to consumer ») sont, en particulier, de plus en plus soumis à l’influence de l’intelligence artificielle (ci-après « IA ») du fait de la part croissante des technologies digitales (internet des objets, plateformes en ligne) et de la digitalisation des services dans les échanges économiques. Il s’agit d’un phénomène de transformation des relations de consommation dont le « potentiel de situation », selon la culture chinoise, est favorable aux premiers entrants sur ce marché . Les économies d’échelle sont en effet plus avantageuses pour les acteurs économiques capables de collecter massivement des données personnelles et de les analyser pour personnaliser leurs offres de services via un ciblage publicitaire. Au sein de l’Union européenne (ci-après « l’Union »), une réflexion a été entamée, ces dernières années, en vue de développer une approche européenne de l’IA au sein d’un espace économique digitalisé. L’Union entend renforcer l’usage de l’IA, tout en prévoyant « un cadre éthique et juridique approprié, fondé sur les valeurs de l’Union » . Dans ce contexte, l’objectif européen de protection des consommateurs et le cadre règlementaire qui le porte sont en passe d’être profondément renouvelés par cette nouvelle dimension du marché intérieur, devenu marché unique numérique . Une « transformation silencieuse » est en cours en droit européen de la consommation ; il existe un « potentiel de situation » pour les acteurs économiques capables d’analyser le mouvement actuel en faveur d’un équilibre des rapports de force entre, d’un côté, les intérêts des consommateurs et, de l’autre, ceux des entreprises actives sur le marché européen. L’élaboration de conditions-cadres pour l’utilisation de l’IA est donc centrale pour assurer un processus règlementaire harmonieux, capable de tenir compte des intérêts de toutes les parties prenantes, en optimisant les avantages économiques des entreprises, tout en limitant les externalités négatives au niveau sociétal. English Abstract: Chinese culture considers every situation as a living process or as a 'silent transformation'. The digital transformation we experience today is certainly similar to this type of imperceptible mutation that is profoundly redesigning economic and social relations and, within them, contractual consumer relations. These \"B2C\" (for \"business to consumer\") relationships are, in particular, increasingly subject to the influence of artificial intelligence (hereafter \"AI\") due to the growing share of digital technologies (internet of things, online platforms) and the digitalization o","PeriodicalId":434487,"journal":{"name":"European Economics: Microeconomics & Industrial Organization eJournal","volume":"128 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127086087","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Selective Distribution in the Age of E-Commerce: An Overview of EU and National Developments","authors":"A. Witt","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3812405","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3812405","url":null,"abstract":"In recent years, the growth of e-commerce has significantly reshaped undertakings’ business and distribution strategies. Not only is the use of selective distribution on the rise, but manufacturers are also imposing more and novel types of restraints to control the conditions of retail. They are also increasingly competing with their distributors by selling the contract goods directly through their own online shops, and are using vertical restraints to regulate the emerging competition. The European courts and enforcement agencies are currently contending with how to assess these new restraints (e.g. bans on online selling and restrictions on the use of third-party platforms, search engines and online advertising) under legal principles that were developed in the 1970s for brick and mortar outlets. This contribution reviews key developments and questions currently occupying the European enforcement agencies and courts. It concludes that, while the European competition agencies have actively enforced Article 101 TFEU against selective distribution agreements in recent years, there is still a great deal of legal uncertainty on how to assess restraints that impede the distributors’ ability to sell and market the contract goods online. This has resulted in diverging approaches in different EU Member States. The current review of Regulation 330/2010 and its accompanying guidelines are a welcome and necessary opportunity for the Commission to provide more clarity and spell out more detailed and up-to-date guidance in the interest of a uniform application of EU competition law.","PeriodicalId":434487,"journal":{"name":"European Economics: Microeconomics & Industrial Organization eJournal","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130356081","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Equipment as a Service: The Transition Towards Usage-Based Business Models","authors":"I. Stojkovski, A. Achleitner, T. Lange","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3763004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3763004","url":null,"abstract":"“Equipment as a service” is perhaps one of the most drastic examples of usage-based business model innovation (BMI) in the field today. To date, a systematic analysis of this phenomenon is lacking. This study aims to close this gap and develops a primer for usage-based BMI. Drawing on BMI theory and expert interviews, our contribution is three-fold: We clarify (1) why firms move towards usage-based business models, (2) what the main usage-based business model archetypes are, and (3) how shifting to these archetypes impacts business model components and innovates the business model. Our analysis identifies macro- and firm-level supply- and demand-side drivers and inhibitors which lead to four main usage-based business model archetypes: “Leasing Plus”, “Flexible Contracting”, “Renting/Sharing”, and “Performance Contracting”. The most radical model in terms of its supply-side risk-return profile is “Performance Contracting”. Evidence suggests that two groups of firms are particularly drawn to usage-based models: Firms in “young”, tech-enabled industries and firms in more mature or even declining industries. The former apply usage-based models as a proactive effort to push their products into the market. The latter do so as a defensive move to secure their market position and not lose customers with liquidity problems. Digitalization is likely to reinforce these developments.","PeriodicalId":434487,"journal":{"name":"European Economics: Microeconomics & Industrial Organization eJournal","volume":"92 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121639851","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"COVID-19 Spreading in Financial Networks: A Semiparametric Matrix Regression Model","authors":"Monica Billio, R. Casarin, Michele Costola, Matteo Iacopini","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3764443","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3764443","url":null,"abstract":"Network models represent a useful tool to describe the complex set of financial relationships among heterogeneous firms in the system. In this paper, we propose a new semiparametric model for temporal multilayer causal networks with both intra- and inter-layer connectivity. A Bayesian model with a hierarchical mixture prior distribution is assumed to capture heterogeneity in the response of the network edges to a set of risk factors including the European COVID-19 cases. We measure the financial connectedness arising from the interactions between two layers defined by stock returns and volatilities. In the empirical analysis, we study the topology of the network before and after the spreading of the COVID-19 disease.","PeriodicalId":434487,"journal":{"name":"European Economics: Microeconomics & Industrial Organization eJournal","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129767666","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Personal Data Portability In The Platform Economy: Economic Implications And Policy Recommendations","authors":"J. Krämer","doi":"10.1093/joclec/nhaa030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/joclec/nhaa030","url":null,"abstract":"Article 20 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) gave consumers in the European Union the right to port their personal data between digital service providers. We critically assess the economic implications of this new right in the light of the extant economic literature and with a focus on competition and innovation in the digital platform economy. In particular, we conclude that observed user behaviour data should clearly fall under the scope of data portability and that, above and beyond the regulations set out under GDPR, a right to port personal data continuously and in real-time would be necessary to truly empower consumers in the context of the digital platform economy. We also discuss the economics of Personal Information Management Systems (PIMSs), which many policymakers see as an essential tool for consumers in an economy where data portability becomes more widespread. However, we are sceptical that PIMS will be self-sustainable and instead advocate to facilitate the development of open-source projects, which have made little progress so far due to a lack of interfaces (which would come about with a right to continuous data portability) and due to a lack of common standards.","PeriodicalId":434487,"journal":{"name":"European Economics: Microeconomics & Industrial Organization eJournal","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127074293","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Determinants of Service Export Behaviour in Italian Non-Financial Firms","authors":"Alessandro Moro, Enrico Tosti","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3710139","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3710139","url":null,"abstract":"This paper analyses the main drivers of Italian service exports using firm-level data. A gravity equation, augmented with firm characteristics and FDI variables, is estimated using a panel of Italian exporters constructed by merging two datasets, the first on international trade in services and the second on FDI relationships, both used to compile the Italian balance of payments. After presenting a formal justification for the presence of FDI variables in the gravity equation, the model is estimated using a panel composed of non-financial firms exporting services other than travel, transport and processing in the period from 2013 to 2018. The econometric analysis shows that FDI is, among the standard drivers of exports (firm size and productivity, foreign demand, trade costs), a significant variable that positively affects Italian firms’ exports of services, pointing to complementarity rather than to substitution. This evidence suggests that a significant component of trade in services includes intra-group transactions.","PeriodicalId":434487,"journal":{"name":"European Economics: Microeconomics & Industrial Organization eJournal","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124988804","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Minimum Wage, Market Imperfection, and Production Efficiency: Panel Event Study in Vietnam","authors":"M. Nose","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3584106","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3584106","url":null,"abstract":"Industries in developing countries involve a host of small businesses which compete with foreign or state-owned firms. This paper examines how an unexpected spike of minimum wages disproportionately affected productivity of domestic and foreign firms under the mixed market structure using Vietnam's enterprise census. While foreign firms were shielded from the policy shock, production of domestic firms has become smaller and informal. A panel event study estimation finds that small domestic firms constrained by the minimum wage regulation significantly reduced employment (-14%), profit margins (-1 percentage point) and TFP (-2%) over three years. Unproductive capital-labor adjustments contributed to the productivity loss. Moreover, a triple-difference regression indicates that small firms faced significantly large negative minimum wage effect when foreign or state-owned firms held strong price setting power in the same market.","PeriodicalId":434487,"journal":{"name":"European Economics: Microeconomics & Industrial Organization eJournal","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123327919","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Bringing an End to Apple’s Anti-Competitive Practices on the App Store: A Response to Völcker & Baker","authors":"D. Geradin, Dimitrios Katsifis","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.3694716","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.3694716","url":null,"abstract":"In April 2020, we published a paper titled “The Antitrust Case Against the Apple App Store.” Prompted by the growing antitrust concerns over various practices of Apple with regard to its App Store and in particular the obligation of certain app developers to use Apple’s proprietary payment system In-App Purchase (“IAP”) to accept user payments, the purpose of this paper was to discuss whether such concerns are (at least prima facie) valid, and if so, how they could be addressed under EU competition law. Based on a detailed analysis of the facts, we suggested several theories of harm and a set of remedies to address the concerns identified. \u0000 \u0000Three months later, Sven Volcker and Daniel Baker published a detailed rebuttal of our initial paper, arguing there is no antitrust case against the Apple App Store and thus no need for remedies. We are grateful to Volcker and Baker for publishing their paper, as it is the first time a detailed defense of Apple’s App Store practices has seen the light of day. The fact that its authors advise Apple makes it particularly interesting as it may shed some light into on the stories told by Apple to regulators on both sides of the Atlantic. Volcker and Baker’s reply also allows us to revisit our paper to see how our arguments hold up against their criticism. \u0000 \u0000In this paper, we show that while at first sight Volcker and Baker’s paper may appear as a convincing defense of Apple’s practices, one does not need to scratch much beneath the surface to find major flaws in their reasoning. In many instances the arguments they put forward are superficial and unsupported by evidence, misleading, self-contradictory, or simply factually inaccurate. For example, the authors’ discussion of market definition is extremely weak, as it is largely predicated on the view that app developers do not multi-home among Google Play and the App Store – a view countered by data and the Commission’s findings in Google Android. Another example is how Volcker and Baker assert most categorically that IAP is the “digital checkout” without which the App Store business model would collapse, while in reality there are technical alternatives to IAP. Volcker and Baker also fail to answer a very simple question we put forward in our first paper: if Apple charges app developers a commission for the value delivered by the App Store, then why is such commission levied only on 16% of apps in the App Store? All in all, Volcker and Baker regurgitate Apple’s one-sided narrative, whereby app developers taking issue with the 30% commission are nothing more but free riders. Needless to say, there is a tension between the authors’ view that app developers’ sole contribution to Apple is in the form of a 30% commission, and their view that third-party apps are so crucial to Apple’s device-based business model that it would never dare to exclude them. \u0000 \u0000A series of recent developments, such as the European Commission’s decision to open formal proceedings against Ap","PeriodicalId":434487,"journal":{"name":"European Economics: Microeconomics & Industrial Organization eJournal","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125119918","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Analysis of Listed Companies' Share Ownership Structures and Patterns of Tender Offers","authors":"Hiroyuki Watanabe","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3683936","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3683936","url":null,"abstract":"Understanding of the entire picture of the share ownership structure of listed companies in each country in general will provide an important perspective for analyzing the present takeover rules in that country, and also for considering appropriate regimes for takeover rules for the future. This perspective is absolutely necessary from the standpoint of policymaking. \u0000Based on the awareness of the issue as mentioned above, I made an analysis of (i) the distribution of the shareholding ratios of the largest shareholders (Table 1), and (ii) the average shareholding ratios of the largest shareholders/second to tenth-ranked shareholders (Table 2) based on the latest data available as of April 30, 2013, so as to study the share ownership structure of listed companies in five countries, i.e. Japan, the U.S., the U.K., Germany and France. I also made an analysis of selected cases of tender offers of each country. \u0000The divergence between the mandatory offer rules and the patterns of tender offer models in the U.K., Germany and France, provides an important insight for legislative policies, as it suggests the following facts, in addition to the basic patterns of different share ownership structure models and tender offers: (i) even the same rules function differently depending on differences in the share ownership structure; and (ii) even a slight difference in the related regulations makes the rules function differently, if the share ownership structure is different.","PeriodicalId":434487,"journal":{"name":"European Economics: Microeconomics & Industrial Organization eJournal","volume":"61 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128490542","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Market Investigations for Digital Platforms: Panacea or Complement?","authors":"Amelia Fletcher","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3668289","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3668289","url":null,"abstract":"There is a growing international consensus that standard competition law is inadequate for addressing the panoply of competition problems arising in digital platform markets. Alongside a proposal for ex ante regulation in this arena, the European Commission is considering the introduction of a ‘New Competition Tool’ which is broadly modelled on the UK Market Investigation instrument. \u0000 \u0000This paper abstracts from the specifics of the EU situation and considers the pros and cons of market investigations in the context of the UK regime. It concludes that the tool is a valuable addition to the standard competition law toolkit, and that this is likely to be true also at EU level, both for digital platforms and more widely. However, because the tool is potentially so powerful and flexible, it merits strong procedural checks and balances, to guard against confirmation bias or politicisation. The tool also has important limitations and thus should not be viewed as a full solution to the issues raised by digital platforms, but rather as a valuable complementary tool alongside new ex ante regulation. Interoperability is discussed as one area where the tools may act in a complementary way.","PeriodicalId":434487,"journal":{"name":"European Economics: Microeconomics & Industrial Organization eJournal","volume":"7 2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116399081","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}