Axel Gautier

Nous avons le plaisir d'accueillir Axel Gautier, professeur d'économie à l'Université de Liège le jeudi 12 mars 2020 au GAEL pour la présentation de son article : Competition between integrated incumbents and a platform.

Abstract: In many sectors, platforms or matchmakers are competing with vertically integrated incumbents. Uber competing with  taxi companies and AirBnB competing with hotels are certainly the two preeminent examples. In this paper, we model this process of competition between a platform and a vertically integrated incumbent.
A striking feature is that the platform competes at two levels. Firstly, the platform competes for the market to affiliate users to the platform. Affiliation is not only a way to gain market shares but also to reduce costs as platforms exhibit strong economies of scales. Secondly, the platform competes in the market with the incumbent for service provision to the affiliated customers. We construct a dynamic model that integrates these two levels of competition.