Speaker: Romain Lestage

Topic:  Net neutrality and price discrimination on either or both sides of the market

Abstract: We study how net neutrality regulations on the content-provider side and the internet-user side interact. We adopt a reduced-form approach where deviations from net neutrality come in form of price discrimination that is triggered either directly by asymmetries across content providers or indirectly by the preferences of internet users in terms of contents. We show that unconstrained discrimination yields higher welfare than full net neutrality, where discrimination is banned on both sides of the market. However, net neutrality on the user side may dominate unconstrained discrimination. These results are driven by the existence of consumption reallocation effects on the content and the user side, and variations in the network externalities, whose direction and relative intensity depend on the balance of the network effects.

Location:  via Zoom; Room 212

Meeting Time: Oct. 22nd, 2021, 10:00-11:15am CST; Oct. 21st, 2021, 10:00-11:15pm EST