We examine cost-reducing investment in vertically-related oligopolies, where firms may be vertically integrated or separated. Analyzing a standard linear Cournot model, we show that: (i) Integrated firms invest more than separated competitors. (ii) Vertical integration increases own investment...

We examine vertical backward integration in a reducedform model of successive oligopolies. Our key findings are: (i) There may be asymmetric equilibria where some firms integrate and others remain separated, even if firms are symmetric initially; (ii) Efficient firms are more likely to integrate...

We compare different methods to assess unilateral merger effects in a two-sided market by applying them to a hypothetical merger in the Dutch newspaper industry. For this, we first specify and estimate a structural model of demand for differentiated products on both the readership and the...

The business model of commercial (free-to-air) television relies on advertisers to pay for programming. Viewers 'inadvertently' watch advertisements that are bundled with programming. Advertisers have no reason to pay to have their ads embedded if the viewers succeed in unbundling the...

We study competition among upstream firms when each of them sells a portfolio of distinct products and the downstream has a limited number of slots (or shelf space). In this situation, we study how bundling affects competition for slots. When the downstream has k number of slots, social...

The present paper analyzes competition and content choice in a two-sided media market by means of simulation techniques. Based on a theoretical model which explicitly incorporates the network effects between audience and advertisers, the simulation obtains new insights into the existing effects...

Media markets recently have been identified as multisided markets. The application of the theory of multisided markets provides a better understanding of such markets. It enriched the hitherto economic approach and led to new insights and perspectives especially for the antitrust authorities...

The purpose of this paper is to analyze how digitalization affects pricing and private copy protection in contents industries. Digitalization enables content providers and online retailers to implement copy protection at different stages of creation and distribution of contents. We construct a...

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how different types of strategic interactions between two firms affect their optimal pricing and private copy protection levels of digital products. In our model, the firms do not directly interact with each other in terms of prices, but they become...