HIGH TECH MARKETS, INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION AND GROWTH

1. Knowledge and understanding. The unit aims to provide knowledge of the main economic aspects related to Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) and their link to some Industrial Organisation (IO) issues.
2. Applying knowledge and understanding. The unit aims to develop skills in applying information, using appropriate methods, concepts and theories regarding both the ITC and IO to the analysis of real-world cases.
3. Making judgments. Successful students will be able to select a proper economic model in order to analyse both theoretical and real-world cases.
4. Communication skills. Successful students will be familiar with both the terms and the narrative related to ITC and IO. Furthermore, they will be able to communicate to a variety of audiences, including experts, practitioners, and the general public.   
5. Learning skills. Students will be able to apply the appropriate theoretical concepts to address specific issues in the fields of ITC and IO.

In-class lectures and seminars. If the course is delivered in blended or remote mode, appropriate adjustments may be made to the above, in order to ensure consistency with the syllabus.

None. 

Highly Recommended.  

Industrial Organisation of Hi-Tech Markets. The economics of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT): an introduction. ICT investments in Research and Development (R&D). Small firms grow online. ICT as a general-purpose technology. ICT and information goods. ICT as a product. Facebook: network effects in action. There’s an app for that: a mention of apps' pricing issues and strategies. Google: the new Big Brother? ICT, the economic value of information, and related privacy issues.  

Digital Markets. Market efficiency. Empirical evidence on digital markets efficiency. Price dispersion on digital markets. Versioning and building. Dynamic pricing.

Network Externalities. Network externalities and critical mass. The dynamics of technology adoption. Competition, compatibility and standardisation. Strategies towards standardisation. Switching costs and network externalities.

Access and Interconnection in Telecommunications. One-way access. Access pricing with imperfect downstream competition. Local loop unbundling. Access and investments: the ladder of investments theory. Two-way access and interconnection. Interconnection fee and collusion. Interconnection and calling rates. Interconnection and the “receiving party pays” regime.

Cumulative Innovation in Dynamic Industries. Patents and other appropriability mechanisms. Standing on the shoulders of giants. Patent thickets and anticommons. The issue of weak patents.

Recommended textbook

• Comino, S., & Manenti, F. M. (2014). Industrial Organisation of High-technology Markets: The Internet and Information Technologies. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Assessment strategy.

This unit will be assessed by means of two pieces of assessment: a written report and an oral exam. The former consists in a 3000-word essay that examines real-world cases related to the content of the unit. During the oral exam, each student will have the opportunity to discuss her/his own report and will be invited to answer open-ended questions. The report and the oral exam will be weighted equally. The essay will be assessed according to the following criteria: general presentation, grammar, vocabulary, text building, critical thinking, and the use of ICT resources. The oral exam will assess the relevance of the answers with respect to the question, its content, the ability to create proper links to additional topics, the ability to report examples, the use of proper technical language, and the overall communication skills. 

The evaluation scheme is as follows:

- Not approved: the student has not acquired the basic concepts and is not able to answer at least 60% of the questions or carry out the exercises.
- 18-23: the student demonstrates minimal mastery of the basic concepts; her content connection skills are modest, and she can solve simple exercises.
- 24-27: the student demonstrates a good mastery of the course contents; her skills in connecting the contents are good, and she solves the exercises with few errors.
- 28-30 cum laude (distinction): the student has acquired all the contents of the course and can master them completely and connect them with a critical spirit; solves the exercises completely and without errors.

IMPORTANT — Students with disabilities and/or Specific Learning Disorders (SpLD) must contact the Department and the CInAP (UniCT's centre for students with disabilities and SpLD) representatives sufficiently in advance of the exam date, in order to notify them of their intention to sit the exam and to arrange the appropriate compensatory measures.

ICT as a product. Market efficiency in Hi-Tech markets. Access pricing with imperfect downstream competition. Patent thickets and anticommons.