University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Essays on empirical industrial organization

Chen, Youning

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/132643

Description

Title
Essays on empirical industrial organization
Author(s)
Chen, Youning
Issue Date
2025-11-19
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Hong, Seung-Hyun
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Hong, Seung-Hyun
Committee Member(s)
  • Lemus, Jorge
  • Dall'Erba, Sandy
  • Deltas, George
Department of Study
Economics
Discipline
Economics
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
  • Industrial Organization
  • Platform
  • Network Effects
  • Patent
  • Licensing
  • Reusable Products
  • Emvironmental Impacts
  • Video Game
Abstract
This dissertation studies platform markets in which a durable device interacts with consumable or content complements, asking how intellectual property policy, licensing choices, and product design shape adoption, pricing, welfare, and environmental outcomes. I develop empirically grounded demand–supply frameworks with indirect network effects, combine structural estimation with reduced-form designs, and recover supply primitives. Across industries, the evidence shows that opening platforms via royalty licensing can expand installed bases and raise long-run surplus; reusable product design can meaningfully displace disposable usage and reduce externalities with limited loss in consumer value; and the composition—especially exclusivity and quality—of complements matters at least as much as sheer variety for hardware adoption. The results integrate environmental accounting into Industrial Organization (IO) analysis of platforms and offer guidance for researchers, managers and policymakers on licensing, content strategy, and support for reusable products.
Graduation Semester
2025-12
Type of Resource
Thesis
Handle URL
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/132643
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2025 Youning Chen

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