Non-price Policy Designs by Vertically Integrated Platforms

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K22117
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: 0107:Economics, business administration, and related fields
• Research Institution: Hitotsubashi University
• Principal Investigator: SATO Susumu 一橋大学, 経済研究所, 講師 (40876710)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-09-11 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: Platform / Self-preferencing / Competition policy

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this project, as a form of non-price design by vertically-integrated platforms, I developed a framework of "self-preferencing" by vertically-integrated platforms, which is an act of designing their own platforms in favor of their first-party products. With this framework, we derived conditions under which self-preferencing may benefit consumers. In addition, I used the competition-in-utility framework, a generalization of price competition to a broader range of business models, to analyze non-price strategies of platforms for theoretical and empirical studies. Finally, I conducted several additional theoretical studies on competition policy towards platforms.

Free Research Field

産業組織論

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

GAFAMに代表されるデジタルプラットフォーム事業者が自社製品・サービスを提供し、自社製品がプラットフォームに製品・サービスを提供する事業者への影響や、自己優遇の問題が学術的にも政策的にも重要な課題となっている。そのような中、プラットフォーム事業者による垂直統合・自己優遇の問題を分析することは社会的な急務である。また垂直統合プラットフォームによる自己優遇に限らず、プラットフォーム事業者による非価格戦略やプラットフォームへの競争政策の理解を深めることも今後のデジタル経済の政策運営のためにも重要である。