11335 - Media Economics

Academic Year 2020/2021

  • Docente: Lucio Picci
  • Credits: 8
  • SSD: SECS-P/02
  • Language: Italian
  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Forli
  • Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Mass media and politics (cod. 8051)

Learning outcomes

The course offers an analysis of the production and market exchange of information goods. It considers the cost structure and pricing of information goods in particular media market, such as, the press, telecommunications, the internet, television and cinema.

Course contents

An always up to date syllabus is in:  https://sites.google.com/site/economiadeimedia/

1. Preliminary aspects
Week 1
Microecnomics review: perfect competition and monopolu

  • Perfect competition markets: "marginal cost pricing" 
    - Relevant parts in [PR]
  • Monopoly
    • Market power and monopoly
      - Relevant parts in [PR]
    • Social welfare and monopoly
      - Relevant parts in [PR]
2. The economics of information goods
Week II.
  • The pricing of information goods.
    • Price discrimination, of I, II and III degree.
      • [PR] sections 11.2.1-11.2.3
    • Price discrimination with self-selection of consumers and "versioning"
    • Bundling
      - [PR], chapter 11 
      - [SV] Chapters 2, 3 e 4
3. The economics of the media and advertising
Week 3-5
    1. General elements
  • Media as platforms of two-sided markets
    - Two-sided markets in Wikipedia 
    - Rysman, Marc (2009) "The Economics of Two-Sided Markets", Journal of Economic Perspectives - Vol. 23, N. 3, pp. 125-143 
    - [Doyle] Chapter 1.
  • The supply chain and integration strategies
    - [Doyle] Chapter 2
Social role of the media and public policies
  • Social role of the media and the market: two opposing point of views
    - McChesney, Robert W. (2008), "The Political Economy of Media", Monthly Review Press, New York.Capitolo 1, pp. 25-66 
    - Gentzkow, Matthew and Jesse M. Shapiro (2009), Competition and Truth in the Market for News, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 22, N. 2, pp. 133-154
  • Public policies
    - [Doyle] Chapter 9. 
    - [AGCOM] Section 1.2.1 (L'evoluzione del quadro normativo in Italia)
The economics of advertising
  • General aspects
    Shaver, Mary Alice (2004), The Economics of the Advertising Industry, capitolo 12 in Alexander, A., Owers, J. Carveth, R. Hollifield, C.A., e A.N. Greco, Media Economics. Theory and Practice. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ and London 
    Wikipedia, List of advertising agencies
  • Advertising and the Internet 
    David S. Evans (2009) The Online Advertising Industry: Economics, Evolution, and Privacy. Journal of Economic Perspectives—Volume 23, Number 3—Summer 2009—Pages 37–60
  • The advertising sector in Italy
    UPA - Utenti Pubblicità Associati (2009). Pubblicità in cifre, 2008. 
    [AGCOM] Section 1.2.6 (La pubblicità)

4. Sectoral analysis
Week 6-10

The telecommunication system
  • General aspects
    [AGCOM] Section 1.1 (Il quadro internazionale) 
    [AGCOM] Section 1.1.1 (Le telecomunicazioni) 
  • Italy [AGCOM] Section 1.2 (In Italia) 
    [AGCOM] Section 1.2.2 (Le telecomunicazioni)
The press Television The movie industry

 

Readings/Bibliography

DO] Doyle, Gillian (2013, Understanding media economics. 2nd edition. London: Sage

[GG] Greenwald, Glenn (2014), No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State. Metropolitan Books (Div. of Henry Holt and Company), ISBN 1-6277-9073-X (10). ISBN 978-1-62779-073-4 (13).
[PI] Picci, Lucio (2011). Reputation-based Governance. Stanford University Press
[PR] Pindyick, Robert S. e Daniel L. Rubinfeld, Microeconomia, Zanichelli, ultima edizione disponibile. In alternativa, qualunque manuale di microeconomia di livello universitario.
[AGCOM 2014a] AGCOM, 2014. Relazione Annuale 2014 .
[AGCOM 2014b]. AGCOM, 2014. Indagine conoscitiva sul settore della raccolta pubblicitaria
[WU] Wu, Tim (2010), The Master Switch, Knopf

All texts are available in the main library.

Altri testi sono indicati nel programma. Tra questi, appaiono alcune voci dall'enciclopedia "Wikipedia" (in lingua inglese). Al riguardo, gli studenti prestino attenzione alle osservazioni che il docente svolgerà nel corso della prima lezione circa l'autorevolezza delle fonti.
I testi tratti da riviste accademiche sono liberamente ottenibili presso il sito del sistema biblotecario d'ateneo (da un computer collegato alla rete d'ateneo, oppure dall'esterno utilizzando il servizio di "proxy").

Altri testi utilizzati:

AGCM, 2007. Editoria quotidiana, periodica e multimediale. Prima parte: le sovvenzioni e i limiti alla concentrazione per i quotidiani (IC 35)

AGCM, 2009. Indagine conoscitiva riguardante il settore dell'editoria quotidiana, periodica e multimediale. Seconda parte: La distribuzione dei profotti editoriali
AGCM, 2004. Indagine conoscitiva sul settore televisivo: la raccolta pubblicitaria (IC 23)

Assessment methods

A midterm and a final written examination.

Teaching tools

A dedicated Google mailing list. Ask the instructor to be included in the distribution list

Links to further information

https://sites.google.com/site/economiadeimedia/

Office hours

See the website of Lucio Picci