Digital Market Design

This is an applied short-course about the design of digital markets. We cover topics in strategic decision making, strategic competition, pricing, economic networks, platforms, and market design, all this focusing on applications to the digital economy. During the lectures we will learn economic theory to study the design of digital bussinesses and markets. We will cover consumer analysis, market research, and strategic competition. We will also explore the economic implications of the Internet, digital technologies, artificial intelligence, and technological advances in general. During the course we will develop a project studying a new product, a new firm, or whole market applying what we will learn in the course.

Topics

• Markets
• Consumer analysis
• Strategic Competition
• Pricing strategies
• Economics of Networks
• Two-sided Platforms
• Market design: Auctions and Matching markets
• Digital economy

Main reading list

General

(V) Varian, H. R. (2014) Intermediate microeconomics: a modern approach. Ninth edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

(BP) Belleflamme, P., & Peitz, M. (2015). Industrial Organization: Markets and Strategies (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781107707139

(Sh) Oz Shy (2008) How to Price. Cambridge University Press. (Available online via DMU library)

(Ch) Church, J. R. (2000) Industrial Organization: A Strategic Approach. McGRAW-Hill. (Available online via DMU library and legally available for free online)

Game Theory

(T) Tadelis, S. (2013). Game theory: an introduction. Princeton university press.

(VR) Fernando Vega-Redondo (2003) Economics and the Theory of Games. Cambridge University Press. (Available online via DMU library)

(SG) Schecter, S., & Gintis, H. (2016). Game theory in action: An introduction to classical and evolutionary models. Princeton University Press. (Available online via DMU library)

(FT) Fudenberg, D. and Tirole, J. (1991) Game theory. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. (Available online via DMU library). [Advanced]

Economic Networks

(MDF) Menczer, F., Fortunato, S., & Davis, C. (2020). A First Course in Network Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

(J) Jackson, M. O. (2008) Social and economic networks. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. (Available online via DMU library). [Advanced]

(EK) Easley, D. and Kleinberg, J. (2010) Networks, Crowds, and Markets; Reasoning About a Highly Connected World. Cambridge University Press. (Available online on the author’s website for free)

Economic Design

(H) Haeringer, G. (2018) Market design: auctions and matching. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

(VRN) Vulkan, N., Roth, A. E. and Neeman, Z. (eds) (2015) The handbook of market design. Oxford: Oxford University Press.