Duration
22h Th
Number of credits
| Bachelor in business engineering | 4 crédits |
Lecturer
Language(s) of instruction
English language
Organisation and examination
Teaching in the first semester, review in January
Schedule
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents
Today, the five largest companies in the world by market capitalization are Google (Alphabet), Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft, often referred to by the acronym GAFAM. They are closely followed by another group of emerging companies, known as NATU (for Netflix, Airbnb, Tesla and Uber) and are increasingly challenged by Chinese giants such as Alibaba, Baidu, or Tencent. What all these companies (perhaps with the exception of Tesla) have in common is that they can be defined as platforms, i.e., as undertakings whose core mission is to enable interactions between users so as to generate value from these interactions. These new digital matchmakers have been turbocharged by technologies and data creating new industries, destroying old ones and forcing traditional business to reinvent themselves.
The economics of multi-sided platform formalizes the interaction between different groups of users on the platform. Economists, for instance the recent Nobel prize Jean Tirole, have shown that taking this interaction between the different sides into account changes many of the traditional results of the classical economic textbook. For instance, prices below marginal cost could be optimal (sometimes optimal prices are negative) or demand could increase with price contradicting the law of demand. Economists and students should take this interaction into account if they want to understand how firms operate in the digital economy and how they are competing for technologies, for products, for clients and for audience. This proposed course intends to fill this gap by presenting the main insights from the last 20 years of research in economics.
Course content (provisional)
Part 1: the economics of the multi-sided platforms
-Platforms and network effects
-Pricing and strategies for a platform
-Creating audience and competition for the market
-Strategies for multi-sided platforms
Part 2: prices, discrimination, data and advertising
-Price discrimination, personalized advertising and recommendations
-Big data and algorithmic competition
Part 3: digital competition and regulation
-Net neutrality
-Competition policy: regulating mergers and market power
-Markets for data and privacy
-Competition between matchmakers and the traditional sector: the Uber economy
-Creation of digital content and piracy
The course will be a mix of theory, empirical evidences and case studies.
Learning outcomes of the learning unit
Prerequisite knowledge and skills
Microeconomics (B2)
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
Teacher's presentations, discussions and exchanges, readings
Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning)
Recommended or required readings
to be completed
Assessment methods and criteria
written exam
Work placement(s)
Organizational remarks
Contacts
Axel Gautier
Office I.43 (B31)
Email: agautie@uliege.be
Adaptation of teaching commitments following the COVID-19 pandemic for the May-June 2020 session
Teaching methods implemented : distance-learning
Assessment subjects
Assessment methods
Contacts
Adaptation of teaching commitments following the COVID-19 pandemic for the Aug-Sept 2020 session
Assessment subjects
Same as in January
Assessment methods
On line exam on Lol@. The questions will be adapted to the online format.