Symmetry as fairness in market design
This is an update on my earlier post discussing first ideas of my PhD on competition law for digital market places and platforms.
A few years ago, Al Roth sent me a chapter on experiments in market design that he wrote for a book. I would like to carry out the design of the experimental study by Hong & Plott that Al mentions in real life (e.g. via a new energy services/product) and with the focus on possible asymmetry of information, influence & power.
Symmetry is my way of interpreting fairness.
To do this, I want to monitor/manage the design of a new digital marketplace, and/or make adjustments to the market design of an existing marketplace. In the nearby future I would like to give advice to the European Commission on policy/market design based on such experiments.
In the long term, I also want to investigate whether algorithms can positively influence markets with regard to a fair market design. (I find the work of Yingqian Zhang very inspiring, which is why I asked her as co-promoter).
I was also inspired by my cousin Bas’ book: Why cola is more expensive than milk. There is an example of what data could do for a market if you know that an object (a sweater in Bas’s example) is no longer used, this is information that can be returned to the supplier/market. If the sweater stays in the closet for (too) long, it can theoretically go back on the market automatically.
Hope to share something like a systematic literature review at the end of 2021/beginning of 2022. If you have questions, let me know in the comments.
