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One of the major challenges that result from the digital transformation occurring in our societies bears on its impact on the organization and regulation of the economy. This leads to a dramatic change to the economic institutions of capitalism—into what could be defined as platform capitalism—that rests on a fundamental dilemma between ‘decentralization’ on the one side and ‘concentration’ on the other. This is the main puzzle that the emergence of a big data driven economy is actually offering to law and economics scholars and to policy makers. This paper introduces to some of the major aspects of this dilemma.

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The process of innovation usually differs from one industry to another, according to level of expected rents, the uncertainty over the return of investments and competition dynamics. The diversity of industries is largely reflected not only in their rate of innovation and growth, but also in the evolution of their governance structures. Notwithstanding the pervasive diversity of the organization of industries, the legal protection accorded by IPRs has evolved as a standard rule that grants the same protection across heterogeneous industries. In order to avoid economic distortions and rent dissipation, IPRs’ definition and enforcement should be implemented on a case by case basis.Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation, Industry Organization, O31, O34, K11,

We empirically investigate the nature and outcomes of the liberalization process in European telecommunications. First, we show that decisions to liberalize a country´s telecommunications sector have followed a path dependent and cumulative pace. Moreover, we investigate the extent to which path-dependency might have forced liberalizations, regardless of the creation of complementary institutions governing promarket outcomes. We find that the impact of liberalizations on competition is strongly enhanced by the establishment of complementary institutions, such as the national regulatory authority. Our findings contribute to the existing literature by outlining the role played by path dependency and institutional complementarities in the process of European liberalization. Our conclusions may provide useful lessons for the optimal policy design of pro-market policies in those European network industries that still wait for substantial liberalization.

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