It is well known that the Internet has significantly reduced consumers'search costs online. But relatively little is known about how searchcosts affect consumer demand structure in online markets. In this paper,we identify the impact of search costs on firm competition and marketstructure by...

This dissertation investigates the impact of online product information on consumers, firms and markets. The first chapter of this dissertation proves that better access to product information increases consumer demand and their willingness-to-pay, leading to a new era where firms can charge...

"In the future data communication networks interoperability becomes critical from both technological and business strategy perspective. Significance of interoperability has to be evaluated in terms of the overall economic performance of the system. In this paper we will present our view of the...

Certifiers have a crucial role in facilitating effective communication in the online and the traditional world. As a way of generating statistically meaningful information, certification has been adopted in financial statements evaluation and more recently in various online communities as well....

This dissertation explores several aspects of the theory in industrial organization.The first chapter builds a model with two cost asymmetric firms who not only have Cournot competition in the spot market but also have the opportunity to trade forward contracts. It is shown that with forward...

This dissertation looks at several issues in designing an optimal skill-basedconsumer contest (SBCC). Consumer product (or service) companies, such asonline entertainment providers, often use SBCCs to promote the consumption oftheir products (or services). The main objective of a SBCC is to...