Digital Ecosystems, the Adtech Tax and Content Quality

Anna D’Annunzio () and Antonio Russo ()
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Anna D’Annunzio: Tor Vergata University of Rome, CSEF and Toulouse School of Economics. Email:, https://csef.it/people/anna-dannunzio/
Antonio Russo: Institut Mines-Telecom Business School., https://csef.it/people/roberto-nistico/

CSEF Working Papers from Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy

Abstract: The adtech industry plays a key role in connecting digital publishers and advertisers. This industry is dominated by integrated ecosystems. We study how integration between an adtech intermediary and a major digital publisher affects the ad market and content production. Integration enables the intermediary to leverage exclusive access to data to monopolize the intermediation market and inflate the adtech taxon independent publishers. This depresses investment in content by independent publishers, but boosts the integrated firm’s investment. The net impact of integration on consumer surplus and welfare depends on which effect prevails. Prohibiting data sharing between firms within the ecosystem is not sufficient to restore the market outcome under vertical separation.

Keywords: Online advertising; intermediaries; vertical integration; adtech tax; content quality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D43 D62 L82 M37 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-09-05
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