1. Build the necessary theoretical tools to understand the effect of the internet on firm and consumer behaviour.
2. Study cases and markets that operate online to analyse the validity of theoretical predictions

The objective of the course is to provide students with theoretical tools to understand the impact of the internet on economic activities such as pricing, advertising, and, two-sided markets, and network design. The material covered is a subset of the Industrial Organization (IO) literature applied to markets that operate based on the internet. Empirical studies will also be discussed to address topics such as the effect of seller ratings on pricing, the effect of tracking consumers on price discrimination, targeted advertising, and online auctions.

No text book is required. The student will be referred to academic articles available online via the university’s library.

This course starts from the fundamentals of microeconomics that have been handed to you earlier in your studies in the first and second year Microeconomics courses. That is, it presumes a working knowledge of microeconomic theory, specifically of the following topics: perfect competition, monopoly pricing, price discrimination, consumer and producer surplus, basic game theory.
Student must have an advanced level of English to properly participate in class discussions, presentations, and writing a final paper.