Digital Economy Summer School

Course Overview and Objectives

Almost 10 years after its inception Bitcoin became practically a household name, periodically making the headlines of newspapers, blogs and other media. As of today, there are more than a thousand cryptocurrencies competing with each other and that could potentially disrupt monetary policies. The technology behind Bitcoin, the so-called blockchain, has also triggered a staggering number of potential applications for other purposes than managing a payment system.

The objective of this course is giving participants a clear and concise understanding of Bitcoin’s design, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses. The program will also consider non-currency applications of blockchain.

Course Outline

1. The Bitcoin design: general overview and game theoretic analysis
2. Empirical analysis of Bitcoin; alternative cryptocurrencies
3. Smart contracts, ICOs/tokens
4. The economics of cryptocurrencies: competition, monetary policy
5. Blockchain beyond cryptocurrencies.

References

Ganuza, J.J. and Llobet, G., (Ed.) Economic analysis of the digital revolution, FUNCAS Social and Economic Studies, nº 5, Funcas (2018)

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About the Instructor

Guillaume Haeringer (PhD, Université de Strasbourg) is Associate Professor of Economics at the Zicklin Business School at Baruch College in New York. His research focuses on market design, game theory, and social choice. Much of his recent investigation concerns the study of matching markets, which involves the use of theoretical advancements to analyze real-life situations and design practical solutions that can be implemented by policymakers. He has published in the American Economic Review, the Journal of Economic Theory, Games and Economic Behavior and the International Journal of Game Theory. He is the author of a textbook on market design published by MIT Press.

Course Overview and Objectives

The aim of the course is to explain the functioning of the markets that digital platforms are promoting. The behavior of digital platforms differs from the classic business model that have been predominant until now. We will show how the information generated and processed by the digital economy affects the prices that companies set for their products and services. For example, companies can put a different price to each consumer, based on information about our search habits, the browser we use or the country from which we connect. We will analyze if these personalized prices are good or bad? We will also have a close look on new applications. We will study how companies such as Facebook or Google put a price on the advertising that appears on most of the web pages. Its great profitability is due, in part, to the use of economic results based on the theory of auctions, developed in recent decades in the academic world. In a nutshell, we will analyze key aspects of how digital economy works, how it affects our welfare and how it should be regulated.

Selected Topics

1. Platform Competition
    Competition; Switching Costs and Network Externalities

2. Information Economics in Digital Markets
    Pricing in Digital Markets; “Digital” auctions

3. Intellectual Property
    Patents, copyrights, and trademarks

About the Instructors

Juan José Ganuza (PhD, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid) is Professor of Economics and Business at UPF. He is Director of the Barcelona GSE Master Program in Competition and Market Regulation.

Previously, he was visiting researcher at the University California Los Angeles, and Institut D'Economie Industrielle (Toulouse).

He has published in the main international economics journals in his research field (RAND Journal of Economics, International Journal of Industrial Organization, Journal of Industrial Economics, Journal of Economics Management and Strategy, etc) as well as in general interest economics journals (such as Econometrica), law journals (such as the Journal of Legal Studies), and business publications (such as Management Science).

Prof. Ganuza has been a consultant on procurement issues for the Spanish government. He has collaborated on several books related with procurement and regulatory issues, among them, The Handbook of Procurement (Cambridge University Press, 2006).

Rosa Ferrer (PhD, Vanderbilt University) is Associate Professor at UPF and a Barcelona GSE Affiliated Professor. She is affiliated with the Econometric Society, the Industrial Organization Society, the American Law and Economics Association, and the European Economic Association.

Her primary research fields are law and economics, and industrial organization. Her work uses both empirical and applied theory to analyze social and legal problems. For instance she has studied legal challenges such as high-litigation expenses, optimal aggregation of preferences according to ideals of justice, and congestion in law enforcement. Her current research mainly focuses on consumer regulation and gender differences among high-skilled individuals.

Antonio Penta (PhD, University of Pennsylvania) is ICREA Research Professor at UPF and Affiliated Professor at the Barcelona GSE. Prior to joining UPF and Barcelona GSE, he was Assistant Professor (2010-2016) and then tenured Associate Professor (2016-2018) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is currently an Associate Editor of the Journal of Economic Theory, and Associate Faculty at Toulouse School of Economics. His research – which has been published in journals such as the American Economic Review, Econometrica, Journal of Economic Theory, Review of Economic Studies, Theoretical Economics, and others – focuses on game theory, auctions, mechanism design and bounded rationality, and it involves both theoretical and experimental work.