Competition policy uses economic analysis to enhance our understanding of how firm behavior affects social welfare. Scholars featured on this site consider how technology markets function, and the special issues raised by networks, platforms, interoperability, and bundling by firms like Google, Apple, and Microsoft.
Researchers today are trying to understand how information technology affects innovation, productivity, and economic growth while studying the impact of political and legal ground rules. Academics featured here are looking at the potential to create jobs and keep policymakers aware of emerging trends in technology.
Intellectual property (IP) rights help creators limit who uses their work without giving value in return. This protection encourages innovation in thought and expression. Academics featured on this site research topics such as open source licensing, digital rights management, patent reform, IP and technical standards, trademarks, and trade secrets.
Interoperability refers to the ability of diverse systems and organizations to work together. Although the term is often used in a technical sense, cultural, political and business factors can lead to data not being shared. Interoperability can be achieved through initial product design, collaboration in product development, standards, and licensing design.
This section contains research on the networks that make the Internet work, the evolution of different business models that operate on the Internet, and ways to store and access information on the Internet through Cloud Computing.
Information technology lets people learn about one another on a scale previously unimaginable. Information in the wrong hands can be harmful. Scholars on this site consider problems of privacy, fraud, identity, and security posed by the digital age.