In a standard adverse selection world, asymmetric information about product quality leads to quality deterioration in the market. Suppose that a higher investment level makes the realization of high quality more likely. Then, if consumers observe the investment (but not the realization of...

This study investigates characteristics of individual crowdfunding practices and drivers of fundraising success, where entrepreneurs can tailor their crowdfunding initiatives better than on standardized platforms. Our data indicate that most of the funds provided are entitled to receive either...

This paper analyzes the optimal protection strategy for an innovator of a complex innovation who faces the risk of imitation by a competitor. We suppose that the innovation can be continuously fragmented into sub-innovations. We characterize the optimal mix of patent and trade secrets when the...

Aujourd’hui, n’importe quel contenu informationnel se résume à une suite de 0 et de 1, que l’on peut transmettre de manière indistincte sur le réseau à destination de n’importe quel utilisateur doté d’un réceptacle quasi universel. La diffusion de l’information a donc changé...

Cela fait plusieurs mois que les médias se font abondamment l’écho du développement des MOOCs. Derrière cet acronyme un peu barbare (qui se prononce ‘Moûk’) se cachent de nouvelles méthodes pour dispenser l’enseignement supérieur. MOOC signifie en effet «Massive Open Online...

This note summarizes and updates our previous survey of the economics of digital piracy (Belleflamme and Peitz, 2012).

The basic idea of crowdfunding is to raise external finance from a large audience (the “crowd”), where each individual provides a very small amount, instead of soliciting a small group of sophisticated investors. The paper develops a model that associates crowdfunding with pre-ordering and...