Is Google the next Microsoft? Competition, Welfare and Regulation in Internet Search

Rufus Pollock ()

Cambridge Working Papers in Economics from Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge

Abstract: The rapid growth of online search and its centrality to the ecology of the Internet raise many questions for economists to answer: Why is the search engine market so concentrated and will it evolve towards monopoly? What implications does this concentration have for consumers, search engines, and advertisers? Does search require regulation and if so in what form? This paper supplies empirical and theoretical material with which to examine these questions. In particular, we (a) show that the already large levels of concentration are likely to continue (b) identify the consequences, negative and positive, of this outcome (c) discuss the regulatory interventions that policy-makers could use to address these.

Keywords: Search Engine; Regulation; Competition; Antitrust; Technology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L40 L10 L50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-com, nep-ict, nep-ind and nep-reg
Date: 2009-05-09
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http://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/dae/repec/cam/pdf/cwpe0921.pdf

Related works:
Working Paper: Is Google the next Microsoft? Competition, Welfare and Regulation in Internet Search (2008)
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cam:camdae:0921

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