The objective of this course is to understand the impact of information on the economy and society. After having learned basic theory on oligopolistic markets and the economics of (asymmetric) information, this knowledge is applied to analyse markets that are characterized by factors related to information, such as: infrastructure, standardization, compatibility, intellectual property rights and patenting, versioning, switching costs and lock-in, consumptive externalities (network effects), and reputation.

This course is an extension of the first-year course Microeconomics (EBC1010) with a focus on markets for information goods. The term “information good” is very broad and includes, in principle, everything that can be digitized, such as books, databases, music, movies, software, etc. As a consequence, trade often takes place via the Internet. We study several topics such as pricing, network effects, and lock-in. One focus will be on platforms (e.g., Apple’s App Store, Google Search Engine, Netflix), which are often key players in markets for information goods. At the beginning of the course, we introduce concepts from pricing and game theory, reviewing and extending contents of the course Microeconomics (EBC1010); later, we apply these concepts.

The textbooks for this course are usually: * Belleflamme, P. & Peitz, M. (2021). The Economics of Platforms: Concepts and Strategy. Cambridge University Press. * Bonnano, G. (2015). Game Theory. Open access textbook. * Perloff, J.M. Microeconomics. Pearson Addison Wesley. The edition will be stated in the syllabus. * Shapiro, C. & Varian, H. (1998). Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy. Harvard Business School Press. In addition, we read academic articles.

It is expected that the students who take this course have a solid knowledge in microeconomics at the level of having passed the first-year course Microeconomics (EBC1010). It is also expected that the students have prior knowledge of basic calculus and statistics, corresponding to familiarity with the topics covered in Quantitative Methods I (EBC1006) and Quantitative Methods II (EBC1034).