Competition, efficiency and market structure in online digital markets. An overview and policy implications

Carlo Cambini (1) , Nicola Meccheri (2) , Virginia Silvestri (3)

1 Polito - Politecnico di Torino = Polytechnic of Turin
2 University of Pisa - Università di Pisa
3 IMT Institute for Advanced Studies [Lucca]

As the Internet develops into a robust channel for (e)commerce, many experts state that in online markets competition would be stronger, prices would be much lower and so the market seems to approximate the competitive paradigm. Is this view correct? In this paper we review the growing literature on e-commerce and its market structure, and we analyze, in particular, how the typical ex-post intevention of competition policy could be applied in order to increase digital markets efficiency.

Mots clés: E-commerce; Market Efficiency; Competition Policy

Domaines: Economies et finances

Carlo Cambini, Nicola Meccheri, Virginia Silvestri. Competition, efficiency and market structure in online digital markets. An overview and policy implications. European Review of Industrial Economics and Policy , 2011, 2. ⟨hal-03468956⟩