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Abstract:
The Paper analyses the funding of an infrastructure project (high speed train line, platform, tunnel, harbor, regional airport, fibre-to-the-home network, etc.) in a situation in which an incumbent operator has private information about market profitability (demand, cost) and the infrastructure owner is subject to a budget constraint, either on a per project basis or over the entire infrastructure. An open access policy raises welfare, but may make the project non-viable since funding must be provided by capital contributions and access charges. The infrastructure owner can ask the incumbent for a higher capital contribution if the latter insists on an exclusive use. Yet, such screening is at odds with social goals: The incumbent is willing to pay more for exclusivity, the higher the demand (the lower the cost), that is precisely when competition yields the highest benefits. At the optimum, the incumbent's information impacts the decision of whether to build the infrastructure, but is not used to determine market structure. The Paper further shows that an absence of long-term licencing favours monopoly franchising, while a threat of regulatory capture creates an open-access presumption.

Access, competition, essential facility, financing

Abstract:
We examine a Bertrand competition game between two intermediaries offering matching services between two sides of a market. Indirect network externalities arise as the probability of finding one's match with a given intermediary increase with the number of agents of the other side who use the services of this intermediary. We formalise some specificities of intermediation on the Internet by allowing registration and transaction prices, and multiple registration. When only registration fees are used and agents register to at most one cybermediary, there exists an equilibrium where one firm corners the market with positive profits, as well as zero profit equilibria where the firms share the market. Introducing either fees that are contingent on successful matching or the possibility of registration with two intermediaries drastically reduces the profits of a dominant firm. Moreover, with multiple registration, new types of positive-profit equilibria emerge where both matchmakers are active and one side of the market registers with both cybermediaries.

Intermediation, network externalities, matching, Internet, competition

Abstract:
We analyze a model of imperfect price competition between intermediation service providers. We insist on features that are relevant for informational intermediation via the Internet: the presence of indirect network externalities, the possibility of using the nonexclusive services of several intermediaries, and the widespread practice of price discrimination based on users' identity and on usage. Efficient market structures emerge in equilibrium, as well as some specific form of inefficient structures. Intermediaries have incentives to propose non-exclusive services, as this moderates competition and allows them to exert market power. We analyze in detail the pricing and business strategies followed by intermediation services providers.

Abstract:
In standard auctions, collusion among buyers eliminates bidding competition despite informational asymmetries. Collusion can, however, be imperfect when the situation involves "externalities" among buyers, that is, when a buyer is worse off if one rival wins the good rather than if nobody gets it. For intermediate values of the externality and under various objective functions, the seller finds it optimal to design an auction that leads, in equilibrium, to a collusive outcome that is ex post inefficient for the group of buyers; an ex ante incentive-efficient collusion mechanism for the buyers is characterized in this situation.