The economic impact of removing geo-blocking restrictions in the EU Digital Single Market

Nestor Duch-Brown () and Bertin Martens
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Nestor Duch-Brown: European Commission - JRC, https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/index_en
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Néstor Duch Brown

No 2016-02, JRC Working Papers on Digital Economy from Joint Research Centre

Abstract: This study investigates the welfare impact of lifting geo-blocking restrictions to cross-border e-commerce in the EU, using a dataset for consumer electronics products in ten European countries for the period 2012-2105. We simulated two counterfactual scenarios where geo-blocking is either fully or only indirectly removed. This would allow consumers to arbitrage, taking advantage of price differences, and to expand product variety through imports. We computed the welfare effects, as changes in both consumer and producer surpluses. Finally, we extrapolated these partial results to all online sales in the EU28. The results indicate that both consumers and producers would gain from removing geo-blocking restrictions. Smaller countries would benefit comparatively more than larger countries.

Keywords: digital single market; geo-blocking; economic impact; consumer welfare; cross-border e-commerce; trade restrictions; consumer electronics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34 pages
Date: 2016-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-com, nep-eur and nep-mkt
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ipt:decwpa:2016-02

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