Abstract 

This paper offers the first systematic quantitative assessment of default-option interventions designed to mitigate Google’s search dominance. By analyzing interventions in the European Economic Area, Russia, and Turkey, we find that, across all three cases, changes to default settings effectively reduced Google’s market share. The causal impact amounts to less than 1 percentage point in the EEA and over 10 percentage points in Russia and Turkey. Differences arise from intervention nuances, including the size of the targeted users’ group, local market characteristics, and remedy designs. We discuss the complexity of assessing the interventions’ impact on welfare deriving from quality responses.

Paper can be downloaded here.

Practicalities

This event will be a hybrid event. The seminar will take place in Roeterseiland campus (REC) building A, room number A3.01, and will also be streamed online via Zoom.  

About the speaker 

Francesco Decarolis is Full Professor of Economics at Bocconi University, Milan, Research Fellow at the Center for European Policy Research (C.E.P.R., London). He holds a laurea in Economics from Bocconi University, an M.Sc. and a PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago. He has taught at Boston University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Wisconsin Madison. He has spent visiting periods at Stanford University, the University of Chicago and Columbia University. His research is in the field of industrial economics, with a focus on competition policy, public procurement, insurance markets and digital platforms. He has published in numerous international journals, including American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Industrial Economics, Management Science. He is currently serving on the editorial board of the Review of Economic Studies.

About ACLE

The Amsterdam Center for Law and Economics (ACLE) is a joint initiative of the Faculty of Economics and Business and the Faculty of Law at the University of Amsterdam. The objective of the ACLE is to promote high-quality interdisciplinary research at the intersection between law and economics.