Dr Thanos Athanasopoulos

Job: Senior Lecturer in Economics

Faculty: Business and Law

School/department: Leicester Castle Business School

Address: athanasios.athanasopoulos@dmu.ac.uk

T: Ext: 7101

E: athanasios.athanasopoulos@dmu.ac.uk

 

Personal profile

My main research interests are Industrial Organisation, Antitrust and Regulatory Economics, Economics of Science and Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Economics of Information. My main areas of teaching are Industrial Organisation, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics and Financial Economics.

Research interests/expertise

My research programme is three-fold:

I have been working in the interface between competition law and intellectual property law in durable network goods industries.

In particular, I am seeking to identify the structure that maximises welfare in industries like software markets, which are highly innovative and important fuels for growth. This project consists of several sub-projects that aim to shed light on (a) the welfare effects from dominant firms’ refusals to support compatibility of their durable network products with potentially innovative rivals on consumers’ surplus (motivated by the European Commission vs Microsoft case regarding Microsoft’s refusal to be compatible with its competitors’ office productivity suites) and firms’ R&D incentives and (2) conditions that lead to current compatibility agreements (such as the Microsoft-Novell interoperability agreement signed in 2008) in the presence of uncertain innovation.  An interesting although challenging question is to look for conditions that support compatibility as a long-run strategy in the face of stochastic innovation and demand.

In another project, I investigate firms’ incentives to participate in Joint Research Ventures regarding their future durable network products as well as the welfare effects from such ventures. Uncertain future product quality is endogenous and it depends on the outcome of the stochastic R&D processes related both to the standard used and the specific product characteristics that each firm produces. In particular, I extend Cabral and Salant (2014), where quality is exogenous and I consider that firms may choose to cooperate in standard setting and/or in the product market(s).

I also seek to answer the following important question related to mergers: In a scenario of sequential innovation, how do different types of mergers affect firms’ current R&D incentives (and average innovation) under a scenario of mandatory compatibility and a less interventionist competition law? What is the effect of mergers on expected consumer surplus? Which types of mergers should be allowed by Competition Authorities in durable network goods markets, as they seem to scrutinize mergers that only lead to duopolies but not triopolies due to potential collusion that may arise in the former case?

Second, I am currently interested in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy and in particular in developing a theory regarding the underlying conditions needed for the initiation and sustainability of Open Innovation.

Third, I have been working on Economics of Information and in particular on strategic experimentation in the presence of endogenously formed networks due to evolving behavioural conditions on the demand side and the role of information in this setting.  

Areas of teaching

Industrial Economics

Macroeconomics

Microeconomics

Financial Economics

Qualifications

BSc in Mathematics, University of Patra, Greece

MSc in Statistics and Operations Research, National and Kapodistrean University of Athens, Greece

MA in Economics, University of Southern California, US

PhD, University of Warwick, UK

Courses taught

Industrial Economic Analysis (MSc course), Introductory Mathematics and Statistics (Pre-sessional course for Masters students), Economics 2 (2nd year Undergraduate module), Corporate Finance and Markets (Final year Undergraduate module), Topics in Financial Economics: Theories and International Finance (Final year Undergraduate module), Research in Applied Economics (Final year Undergraduate module), Macroeconomics 2 (2nd year Undergraduate module)

Honours and awards

RISING STAR Session, EARIE (European Association for Research in Industrial  Economics), Munich, Germany

08/2015

STARS OF WARWICK: Nominated as one of the three best postgraduate students teaching at Warwick, University of Warwick, UK

12/2012

Award for Outstanding Contribution at the Department of Economics, University of Warwick, Uk

07/2015

Nomination for Teaching Excellence, University of Warwick, UK

05/2013

Membership of external committees

Member of the Greek Statistical Institute (ESI)

Member of the European Association for Research in Industrial Economics

Member of the Royal Economic Society

2004-Present

2015-Present

2014-Present

Forthcoming events

Presentation in CRESSE Conference (Advances in the Analysis of Competition Policy and Regulation), Rhodes, Greece, 07/2016 

Conference attendance

Incentives to Innovate, Compatibility and Welfare in Durable Goods Markets with Network Effects

Presented at: Royal Economics Society Conference, Brighton, UK, 03/2016

Rising Star Session, European Association for Research in Industrial Economics (EARIE), Munich, Germany, 08/2015

Compatibility, Intellectual Property, Innovation and Welfare in Durable Goods Markets with Network Effects

Presented at: International Conference on Competition and Regulation (CRESSE), Corfu, Greece, 07/2014

Royal Economics Society PhD Meetings and Job Market, London, UK, 01/2015

European Association for Research in Industrial Economics (EARIE), Munich, Germany, 08/2015

Efficient Upgrading in Network Goods; Is Commitment Always Good?

Presented at: CISS 2013 (Competition and Innovation Summer School), Turunc, Marmaris, Turkey 05/2013

3rd GAEL Conference (Product Differentiation and Innovation in Related Markets), Grenoble, France 06/2013

Forum on Industrial Organisation and Marketing, Frankfurt, Germany, 08/2013

Recent research outputs

Incentives to Innovate, Compatibility and Welfare in Durable Goods Markets with    Network Effects

Compatibility, Intellectual Property, Innovation and Welfare in Durable Goods Markets with Network Effects 

Efficient Upgrading in Network Goods; Is Commitment Always Good?

 

WORK IN PROGRESS

RJVs, Value Creation and Network Control in Durable Goods Markets

Open Innovation; Conditions for Viability and Sustainability

Strategic Experimentation with endogenous networks and Stochastic Demand

Mergers, Innovation and Welfare in Durable Goods Markets with Network Effects

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