code: A7169      studiebelasting: 3 sp      periode: sem. 2
naam: Economics of the internet
internet: rooster
opleiding/fase: econ/d23/profiel
voertaal: English
docent(en): dr. J.L. Moraga Gonzalez
contactpersoon: mw. L.T.M. Terheijden-van Eijk
secretariaat: AE/Micro
aanmelding: bij het secretariaat AE/Micro
toelatingseisen: -
aanbevolen: -
onderwijsvorm: hoorcollege 2 uur per week
tentamenvorm: schriftelijke toets.
Bij voldoende resultaat blijft slechts een verplicht empirisch werkstuk en een beperkte hoeveelheid keuzeliteratuur over voor het mondelinge tentamen.
tentamenperiode:
tentameneisen: -
tentamenstof: collegestof + verplichte literatuur

Objective

  1. To understand the economic problems underlying the decision-making processes of those firms operating in the industries that form the Internet infrastructure - telecommunication networks, hardware and software - .
  2. To understand how the Internet will shape economic activity and policy.

Content

This course starts with the study of the economic characteristics of the industries that form the Internet infrastructure. These features include the existence of complementarities, network externalities, switching costs and economies of scale. These characteristics have a bearing on the nature of the decisions taken by the firms that operate in these industries, and, by implication, on competition policy issues related to the Internet. These decisions include compatibility and standardization of hardware and software, universal service of telecommunication networks as well as quality of networks connectivity. The course continues with the analysis of the implications that the existence of the Internet infrastructure has for economic activity, including business-to-business and business-to-consumers electronic commerce. We shall discuss how the Internet is likely to affect market structure and the distribution of economic surplus among agents.

Required literature

 29-1-2002