Online peer-to-peer communities and online social networks have become increasingly popular. In particular, the recent boost of online peer-to-peer communities leads to exponential growth in sharing of user-contributed content which have brought profound changes to business and economic...

Recently user-oriented online sharing communities have seen explosive growth. Two characteristics of these communities set them apart from traditional online message-based communities such as online forums. First, users have no social ties before joining the community. Second, there is little or...

China's actions in limiting the export of rare earths have drawn the world's attention. The USA, Japan, and the European Union (EU) have been frustrated with China's measures, even threatening to bring the case to the WTO. These rare earth trade disputes are but the tip of the iceberg. Forms of...

Some effects of e-Commerce, and their implications for financial services firms, are becoming clear. The web drives transparency, and increases the information endowment of all market participants. It is harder to manipulate customers’ behavior, or to overcharge them, as their information...

The Appellate Body's interpretation in China -- Raw Materials regarding the applicability of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Article XX to China's Accession Protocol is highly controversial and stimulates wide debates in academia. The controversy is rooted in the absence of an...

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

We study reputations with imperfect audit and a reputation market. The main result shows the existence of a separating equilibrium in the reputation market, which contrasts with Tadelis [Tadelis, S., 2002, The market for reputations as an incentive mechanism, Journal of Political Economy 110(4),...