Advanced Introduction to Platform Economics (Elgar Advanced Introductions series)

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas.

This cutting edge book introduces the origins and consequences of digital platforms, examining how artificial intelligence-enabled digital platforms collect and process data from and about users by providing social media and e-commerce services. Robin Mansell and W. Edward Steinmueller compare and contrast neoclassical, institutional and critical political economy approaches. They show how uneven power relationships between platform operators and their users are analysed in different economic traditions.

Key features include:

• analysis of economic and public values
• provides a foundation for platform regulation
• examines the impacts of platforms on the media industry
• challenges claims of the inevitability of platform dominance
• discusses key challenges, including: artificial intelligence, data sharing and competition in the digital economy.

This concise book will be indispensable for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of media and communication studies, innovation studies and economics, particularly those focusing on platform economics.

Robin Mansell, Professor Emerita, Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science and W. Edward Steinmueller, R.M. Philips Professor of the Economics of Innovation, Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex, UK