The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded a coveted Starting Grant to BCCP Director and Senior Fellow Özlem Bedre-Defolie, Associate Professor of Economics at the ESMT Berlin. The grant, worth approximately 1.5 million Euros, will enable her to pursue her research project “Digital Platforms: Pricing, Variety and Quality Provision” (DIPVAR) and build up her own research group over the next five years.
The project aims at developing new theoretical models of digital platforms, capturing the particular dynamics of these markets, which are not fully accounted for by existing research. Globally operating platforms such as Amazon, Alibaba, and Google mostly have very high market shares, which might harm consumers even if they provide valuable services often at zero price. Using the developed theoretical models, in a second step DIPVAR therefore wants to study the effects of dominant platforms’ practices on prices, variety and quality delivered to consumers as well as the consequences for smaller platforms. Based on the results, DIPVAR will then be able to make recommendations for effective competition policy and consumer protection in digital platform markets.
Further information about the 2019 ERC Starting Grants.