This thesis strives to offer new insights in two main areas. First, in the well-researched domain of payment cards chapters 2 and 3 investigate an aspect that has hitherto been scantly examined, namely, the fact that merchant usage fees differ substantially among merchant sectors. Additionally,...

We examine the formation of networks among a set of players whose payoffs depend on the structure of the network. We focus on games where players may bargain by promising or demanding transfer payments when forming links. We examine several variations of the transfer/bargaining aspect of link...

he economic concept of networks refers to the structure of agents` interaction as well as to the economic property of positive externalities. This book describes the economics of networks from various perspectives among which are¤ classical approaches, methods derived from physics, theory of...