I develop a tractable framework for conducting platform design counterfactuals in settings where many sellers compete and set prices dynamically, using approaches developed in the recent literature on Oblivious Equilibria. As an initial application, I use the model to study a simple platform...

We study price discrimination by a monopoly two-sided platform who mediates interactions between two different groups of agents. We adapt a canonical model of second degree price discrimination a la Mussa and Rosen (1978) to a two-sided platform by focusing on non-responsiveness, a clash between...

Online auction environments provide several sources of information that can be used by bidders to form their bids. The impact of this information on bidding is likely to be higher when ambiguously specifi ed products are auctioned. The secondary market represents one such environment, where used...

In developing countries, mobile telecom networks have emerged as major providers of financial services, bypassing the sparse retail networks of traditional banks. We analyze a large individual-level data set of mobile money transactions in Tanzania. Transactions can be classified as (i) money...

We empirically examine the trade-off between the benefits of buying online and the benefits of buying in a local retail store. How does a consumer's physical location shape the relative benefits of buying from the online world? We explore this problem using data from Amazon on the top selling...

I examine the role of word of mouth in consumer's product discovery process and its implications for the firm. A monopolist supplies an assortment of horizontally differentiated products and consumers search for a product that matches their taste by sampling products from the assortment or by...

Malicious software, commonly termed ldquo;malware,rdquo; continuously presents one of the top security concerns and causes tremendous worldwide financial losses for organizations. In this paper, we propose a structural risk model to analyze malware propagation dynamics measured by a...

Consumers rely on platforms to access goods and services in many industries. Platform firms are often integrated, including their own goods in the menu of products offered to consumers. With the ability to impact both pricing and product assortment, these integrated firms face a trade-off...

This study analyzes and contrasts the U.S. and EU antitrust standards on bundling (in its various forms) and tying. The analysis is applied to the U.S. and EU cases concerning Microsoft's practice of integrating (tying) new products (Internet Explorer in the U.S. and Windows Media Player in the...

Our study extends the empirical literature on whether vertical restraints are anticompetitive. We focus on exclusive contracting in platform markets, which feature indirect network effects and thus are susceptible to applications barriers to entry. Theory suggests that exclusive contracts in...