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on Information and Communication Technologies |
| By: | Anja Breitwieser; Neil Foster (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw) |
| Abstract: | Following the conclusion of the TRIPS Agreement, much has been written on the potential costs and benefits of stronger Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) protection in terms of its impact on innovation and technology transfer, as well as economic growth and welfare. This paper documents the development of IPR regimes within countries and internationally, before surveying the theoretical and empirical literature linking the protection of IPRs to economic growth, innovation and technology diffusion. |
| Keywords: | intellectual property rights, economic growth, innovation, technology diffusion |
| JEL: | O3 |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wii:wpaper:88&r=ict |
| By: | Yongmin Chen (Department of Economics, University of Colorado, Boulder); Tianle Zhang (Faculty of Business, Hong Kong Polytechnic University) |
| Abstract: | Sellers sometimes offer goods for sale under both a regular price and a discount for group purchase if the consumer group reaches some minimum size. This selling practice, which we term interpersonal bundling, has been popularized on the Internet by companies such as Groupon. We explain why interpersonal bundling is a profitable strategy in the presence of demand uncertainty, and how it may further boost profits by stimulating product information dissemination. Other reasons for its profitability are also discussed. We provide sufficient conditions for interpersonal bundling to dominate separate selling, and identify factors that determine the size of its profit advantage. |
| Keywords: | Interpersonal Bundling, Group Coupon, Group Discount, Demand Uncertainty |
| JEL: | D4 L1 M3 |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:net:wpaper:1209&r=ict |
| By: | Santiago R. Balseiro (Graduate School of Business, Columbia University); Omar Besbes (Graduate School of Business, Columbia University); Gabriel Y. Weintraub (Graduate School of Business, Columbia University) |
| Abstract: | Ad Exchanges are emerging Internet markets where advertisers may purchase display ad placements, in real-time and based on specific viewer information, directly from publishers via a simple auction mechanism. Advertisers join these markets with a pre-specified budget and participate in multiple second-price auctions over the length of a campaign. This paper studies the competitive landscape that arises in Ad Exchanges and the implications for publishers' decisions. Our first main contribution is to introduce the novel notion of a Fluid Mean Field Equilibrium (FMFE) that is behaviorally appealing, computationally tractable, and in some important cases yields a closed-form characterization. Moreover, we show that a FMFE approximates well the rational behavior of advertisers in large markets. Our second main contribution is to use this framework to provide sharp prescriptions for key auction design decisions that publishers face in these markets, such as the reserve price, the allocation of impressions to the exchange versus an alternative channel, and the disclosure of viewers' information. Notably, we show that proper adjustment of the reserve price is key in (1) making profitable for the publisher to try selling all impressions in the exchange before utilizing the alternative channel; and (2) compensating for the thinner markets created by greater disclosure of viewers' information. |
| Keywords: | auction design, revenue management, ad exchange, display advertising, internet, budget constraints, dynamic games, mean field, fl uid approximation |
| JEL: | C73 L86 |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:net:wpaper:1211&r=ict |
| By: | Lechman, Ewa |
| Abstract: | The paper, mostly empirical in nature, investigates issues on cross-national new information and communication technologies (ICTs) adoption patterns and growth directions. In the period of 2000-2010, a great number of countries underwent substantial changes on the field of ICTs implementation. Many of them made a great “jump” starting with almost “zero level” of ICTs adoption in year 2000, and during the 10 – year period were implementing ICTs at astonishingly high pace. Despite the obvious positive impact that ICTs have on overall society and economy condition, rapid changes can also generate higher inequalities on the field. The paper focuses mainly on capturing these changes. It also aims to confirm or reject the hypothesis on growing inter-country inequalities in ICTs adoption. The target of the paper is twofold. Firstly, we explain the magnitude of past and present differences in digitalization level among countries; secondly, we concentrate digital technology convergence. We apply three approaches to convergence – -convergence, σ-convergence and quantile-convergence (q-convergence), to check if relative division between countries was growing or diminishing in the time span 2000-2010. Additionally we check if countries of the given sample tend to form convergence clubs in the relevant years. The analysis is run for the sample consisted of 145 economies and the time coverage is 2000-2010. All data applied in the research are drawn from the International Telecommunication Union statistical databases. |
| Keywords: | technology; convergence; ICTs; quantile convergence; clusters; technology clubs |
| JEL: | O11 O57 O33 |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:41849&r=ict |
| By: | Nicola Lacetera (Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto); Mario Macis (Carey Business School, Johns Hopkins University); Angelo Mele (Carey Business School, Johns Hopkins University) |
| Abstract: | We present preliminary results from a small-scale natural field experiment aimed at exploring online social contagion, with an application to charitable giving. We worked in partnership with Heifer International, a non-profit organization aimed at fighting poverty in developing countries, and HelpAttack!, the developer of a Facebook application that facilitates donations to charities while broadcasting such activities to the donors’ Facebook contacts. We ran a series of marketing campaigns, and randomized the broadcasting of users’ pledges, thereby creating exogenous variation in the information that users’ contacts were receiving. Although our campaigns reached as many as about 13 million Facebook users, 6,000 users clicked on the ad and only 18 pledges were made, without any subsequent pledge from these users’ contacts. We offer potential explanations for this finding on the absence of network effects, and outline our plans for future developments of this on-going project. |
| Keywords: | Online networks, diffusion, pro-social behavior, network effects |
| JEL: | C93 D64 O33 M31 |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:net:wpaper:1216&r=ict |
| By: | Serge LE ROUX (Laboratoire de Recherche sur l'Industrie et l'Innovation. ULCO) |
| Abstract: | Les technologies de l’information et de la communication ont un rôle structurant : depuis plus d’un demi-siècle, les techniques issues de l’électronique, et les façons dont elles sont utilisées, ont profondément modifié l’ensemble des données économiques, la production, le management, le travail, l’entrepreneuriat. L’économie numérique (versus « industrielle ») se situe dans un univers systémique. Divers travaux académiques réalisés sur la thématique des relations entre technologies et travail et sur de nombreuses expériences concrètes dans les domaines de l’innovation sur les plans territorial, managérial, institutionnel et l’individuel permettent aujourd’hui d’analyser les nouvelles solutions offertes par le travail à distance. Information and communication technologies have a structuring role: for over half a century, the techniques ensuing from electronics, and the ways they are used, have profoundly changed the whole economic, production, management, labor and entrepreneurship situations. The digital economy (versus the “industrial” one) is a systemic universe. Various academic studies conducted on the topic of the relationship between technology and work and many practical experiences in the areas of territorial, managerial, institutional and individual innovation now give the possibility to analyze the new solutions offered by teleworking. |
| Keywords: | innovation, télétravail, technologies de l’information et de la communication |
| JEL: | J8 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rii:riidoc:253&r=ict |