Digital regulation - Next session

Speaker : Bertin Martens - Bruegel

Paper : An exploration of the institutional economics of AI

Abstract : In this presentation, I explore some emerging evidence that AI, an important change in information technology, does not only affect economics (production, consumption and markets) but also puts pressure to change on the economic institutions that underpin markets and organisations. I discuss several concrete examples where institutional stress is already observable: competition and vertical integration, intellectual property rights, and more fundamentally the division of labour and private property rights that have characterized economic development over the last couple of centuries. I trace the origins of this institutional stress to an increase in the relative value of aggregated data over fragmented (individual, private) data. This was triggered by digital technology that dramatically reduced the transaction costs of data aggregation, compared to analogue information technology, and thereby enabled new sources of welfare externalities, generated by economies of scale and scope in data aggregation. Harvesting and allocating the benefits of these externalities requires a new institutional architecture.

Relevant information:

• Here the Microsoft Teams link. The session will cover 90 minutes (questions and answers included).
• The working group is part of the activities of the Governance and Regulation Chair at Paris Dauphine-PSL University. The group meets once in two weeks to discuss, share, and present working papers and/or ideas surrounding recent developments in the domain of platform regulation. We have both internal and external presenters to share their work.
• If you would like to present your work or have anyone in mind to present, please send an email to lucas.eustache@dauphine.psl.eu.