Rethinking Antitrust for the Cloud Era*

Gerald Berk and AnnaLee Saxenian
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Gerald Berk: University of Oregon
AnnaLee Saxenian: University of California, Berkeley

Politics & Society, 2023, vol. 51, issue 3, 409-435

Abstract: This article asks how antitrust can foster innovation by examining the development of infrastructure for data processing in the cloud. We contrast Amazon Web Services' centralized model with Google Cloud Platform's more decentralized, participatory ecosystem. We argue that rather than trying to reduce the power imbalance between platforms and independent database companies, antitrust should seek to channel platforms from the centralized model toward the decentralized ecosystem by (1) making partnership more attractive than mergers and (2) enlisting open-source foundations to help manage interoperability in the cloud. This requires breaking down the silos between competition, technology, and industrial policy.

Keywords: antitrust; cloud computing; open-source software; innovation networks; innovation ecosystem; platform economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:polsoc:v:51:y:2023:i:3:p:409-435

DOI: 10.1177/00323292231183806

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