Data Neutrality & Open Access

The goal of the research project is to inform the quest for a new coherent economic policy framework for the digital economy by taking an interdisciplinary research approach between economics, information systems research and law. In particular, the project deals with the research question of how to design rules and institutions that govern the access to data and especially the access to personal data. As data gatekeepers in digital markets may exploit their dominant position and endanger consumers’ control over their own personal data, the research project investigates the economic impact of direct regulatory intervention policies in combination with policies directed to empower users. Next to industrial organization and game-theoretic models, alternative policy proposals are evaluated by a mixture of experimental and computational simulation research methods.