The Economics of Digital Markets

Alessandro Bonatti, MIT

July 29 – August 2, 2024

The role of data in shaping competition in digital markets is a critical issue in both economics and policy. Large digital platforms leverage data to connect viewers and content providers, and they monetize their data by selling sponsored content and targeted advertising. Digital platforms thus serve a dual role of information gatekeepers and competition managers. The optimal regulatory response to the current business practices of digital platforms, if any, relies on improving our understanding of intermediated online marketplace and how data-rich platforms create and distribute surplus among market participants. With this objective in mind, the course will cover research-active topics in the theory of industrial organization, with an emphasis on digital marketplaces and a focus on papers that utilize tools from mechanism design and information design. Exemplary topics will include digital platforms and vertical integration; markets for information and consumer data; consumer scores, product steering, and behavior-based price discrimination. The course will also introduce the debate on online privacy and information disclosure, examining the trade-offs associated with digital platforms having a more precise understanding of consumer preferences.

Alessandro Bonatti is the John Norris Maguire (1960) Professor of Applied Economics at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Professor Bonatti is an applied microeconomic theorist working at the intersection of game theory and industrial organization. His research studies the dynamics of incentives in organizations, dynamic and non-linear pricing, and the economics of digital markets. Professor Bonatti currently serves as an Editor for the Rand Journal of Economics, and as an Associate Editor for the American Economic Journal: Microeconomics. He holds an MA, an MPhil, and a PhD in economics from Yale University. 

Application

The application deadline ended on April 15, 2024.

Admission and Registration

The Study Center communicates admission decision by the end of May, 2024, and sends participants the corresponding invoice. The registration form will be sent after the Center receives the payment of the course fee.