ALGORITHMS AND THE COMPETITIVE IDEAL Cover Image

АЛГОРИТМИТЕ И КОНКУРЕНТНИЯТ ИДЕАЛ
ALGORITHMS AND THE COMPETITIVE IDEAL

Author(s): Aleksandar Todorov
Subject(s): Economy, Business Economy / Management
Published by: Икономически университет - Варна
Keywords: algorithm; competition; collusion
Summary/Abstract: Do modern digital algorithms contribute to more competition? The paper at hand answers this question by looking at the competitive effects of some of the most common algorithms on the Internet. At first glance, search, comparison, recommendation, and evaluation algorithms seem to bring markets closer to the competitive ideal, but a closer look reveals that they also create several distortions to competitive behavior. On the supply side, the increasingly common application of pricing algorithms bears the risk of collusive behavior. The solutions offered so far - consumer protection algorithms and an active competition policy are only partial and still immature.