Group Hug: Platform Competition with User Groups

Platform Competition with Endogenous Homing∗

We develop a model for two-sided markets with consumers and producers, who interact through a platform. Typical settings for the model are the market for smartphones with phone users, app producers, and smartphone operating systems; or the video game market with game players, video game producers, and video game consoles. Only consumers who purchase the platform can access content from the prod...

Within-group competition reduces cooperation and payoffs in human groups

Social organisms in many taxa cooperate to produce resources that are shared among group members. Some cooperatively produced resources may be monopolized by individuals who invest in within-group competition, but these have largely been overlooked in empirical and theoretical research on human cooperation, which has focused on noncontestable public goods. In this study, we allow for the potent...

To hug or not to hug.

A hug is a wholesome thing. At least at one time it was. Most people considered a hug genial and benevolent. It conveyed a positive meaning: a praise, an expression of encouragement, or consolation. A hug meant someone was being friendly. Those were the days before sexual harassment issues and sexual assault cases. Now a hug often is suspect. The motivation for touch frequently is questioned. T...

Elections with platform and valence competition

Article history: Received 10 January 2008 Available online 10 December 2008 JEL classification: C72 D72 We study a game in which candidates first choose platforms and then invest in costly valences (e.g., engage in campaign spending). The marginal return to valence depends on platform polarization—the closer platforms are, the more valence affects the election outcome. Consequently, candidates ...

Platform Competition in Telecommunications