Firms can increase the demand for their products and consolidate their market power not only by increasing user utility but also by decreasing non-user utility. In this paper, we examine this mechanism by considering the case of smartphones. In particular, Apple has faced criticism for allegedly...

This paper studies the impact of truth-telling preferences on aggregate consumer welfare within a priority pricing (PP) mechanism. Traditional models assume individuals always misrepresent private information to maximize payoffs, yet recent evidence suggests there may be an innate preference for...

China has become a major player in sovereign lending towards Africa during the past two decades but has recently been faced with increasing defaults. A new African debt crisis is looming. • Differences in the motives of sovereign lending between China and Western creditor countries contribute...

China has become a major player in sovereign lending towards Africa during the past two decades but has recently been faced with increasing defaults. A new African debt crisis is looming. • Differences in the motives of sovereign lending between China and Western creditor countries contribute...

We study how experts influence consumer behavior and welfare by focusing on the Booker Prize. Leveraging the discontinuity created by the attribution of the prize, we show that readers receive the signal sent by the jury of the Booker and are persuaded to buy the awarded book but experience...

Merger control plays a central role in competition policy. When assessing proposed mergers, Competition Authorities should consider its impact on all relevant markets. Large mergers between manufacturers typically impact competition, thus requiring the approval of Competition Authorities....

This article oscillates around the intersection of sustainability and digital platforms, which is an increasingly important and complex area of study in which digital platforms can have both a positive and a negative influence. The interaction between sustainability and digital platforms is...

We learn that scientific progress is inherently good, that it has improved the living conditions of all humans and that the digital revolution is progressively helping level the playing field for all. But empirical evidence related to the effects of technological disruptions on the living...

A reform movement is underway in antitrust. Citing prior enforcement failures, deviations from the original intent of the antitrust laws, and overall rising levels of sector concentration, some are seeking to fundamentally alter or altogether replace the current consumer welfare standard, which...

This text was published as Weekend Edition of EU Law Live. It explains what the Consumer Welfare Hypothesis can do for legal scholars, especially (but not only) in the European Union:1 offer two new responses to arguments of this kind: from an economic point of view, this...

We examine the impact of targeted advertising on competition and welfare when advertising directly affects the consumer’s utility, as in Becker and Murphy (1993). We show that as targeted advertising becomes less costly, market concentration and prices increase. Yet consumer welfare also...

(Korean Abstract) 본 연구는 무역 자유화나 글로벌 인플레이션 등 외부 충격으로 인한 국내가격 변화가 품질 다양성 및 소비자 후생에 미치는 영향을 고찰한다. 자유무역협정(FTA) 발효 등으로 인해 무역 자유화가 진전되면 관세...

This paper addresses two central questions in markets with adverse selection: How does information impact the welfare of market participants (sellers and buyers)? Also, what is the optimal information disclosure policy and how is it affected by the planner's relative welfare weight on sellers'...

The household welfare gains from financial inclusion are empirically elusive. This paper establishes that household welfare gains from a financial technology are equal to the area under dynamically compensated demand in a household model with incomplete financial markets, and general technology,...

In the context of a vertically differentiated duopoly model with endogenous quality choice, we analyzes the welfare effect of overlapping ownership when the market is fully covered. The results show that overlapping ownership, while detrimental for consumer surplus, may increase or decrease...

Policy choices often entail trade-offs between workers and consumers. I assess how foreign competition changes the consumer welfare and domestic employment effects of a merger. I construct a model accounting for demand responses, endogenous product portfolios, and employment. I apply this model...

Cross-border B2C e-commerce is growing rapidly in Korea. According to data released by Statistics Korea, Korea’s total retail import value from the cross-border e-commerce trade in 2017 stood at about KRW 2.2 trillion, while in 2021 it reached KRW 5.1 trillion.2 The total retail value of...

We develop a micro-founded monetary model to inquire the role of a privately provided e-money instrument for household consumption smoothing and welfare. Different from fiat money, e-money users pay electronic transaction fees, but in turn e-money reduces spatial separation frictions and enables...

Two recent papers by prominent antitrust scholars argue that a revived antitrust movement can help reverse the dramatic rise in economic inequality and the erosion of political democracy in the United States. Both papers rely on the legislative history of the key antitrust statutes to support...

When judging the distributional impact of a sin tax, what matters is not just how much low-income people would pay but how much the tax would benefit or harm them overall. In this paper, we assess the consumer welfare impact of a fat tax net of its expected benefits computed as savings from...

We show that computing the consumer surplus as the area below the demand curve and above the equilibrium price level is consistent with the definition of consumer surplus, as the monetary gain obtained because consumers are able to purchase for a price less than the highest price that they would...