Research On Digital Information Goods Market Microstructure

The 21st century is an era full of digitalisation and information. With the development of network technology and digital technology, digital information goods are the main form of information goods. Due to the special cost structure of digital information goods, its special requirement of timing and effective and difficulty in measuring its value, the researches on digital information goods mostly focus on the pricing policy such as bundled pricing, shared pricing and so on. From the perspective of the real digital information goods market, the factors influencing pricing are not only cost of providers and use of consumers but also different transaction modes. Just like in the researches on the securities market microstructure, different transaction modes will affect the pricing of securities trading, researches on digital information goods market microstructure should also take the different transaction modes into consideration. Then, what are the transaction modes in digital information goods market and how do they influence the ultimate trading price?The author participated in the National Natural Science Fund Project "microstructure of data market and the role of operators in the data market" (No: 70472073), studied the relationship in the game between the firms on the value chain in data service market, and learned that unlike common commodities markets, digital information market has a lot of particularity, researches on the this important and special market micro structure especially the function methods, characteristics and influence factors have significant meaning.On the basis of above work, our paper studies the different transaction modes and different price formation process, and explores the efficiency and adoption scope of different transaction modes. We try to conduct a positive and useful exploration and hope it is benefit for further researches.In this paper, the author explores theoretical and empirical analysis of two key issues of market microstructure which are transaction modes and price formation mechanism. At first, our paper makes research on transaction modes and price formation mechanism from the view of microstructure not traditional view. And then compares different transaction modes in digital information markets and analyze the market players' control power on logistics, capital flow and information flow. Secondly, we combined dynamic bargaining model with Bayesian equilibrium. On the basis of modeling, we analyzed different equilibrium prices in different modes and bargaining patience of providers, consumers, merchants and platform providers. Finally, through analysis of transaction costs and demand curve of transaction players, our paper studies whether providers adopt direct transaction or intermediary transaction and whether intermediary is willing to be a platform or a merchant. The researches on these key issues are the main innovations of our paper.There are nine chapters in our paper.In the first chapter, we not only describe the background and significance of this research, but also outline the research method, organizational structure and main innovations of our paper.The second chapter describes the origin, research methods and the main outcome of market microstructure researches.The third chapter studies the technical characteristics and economic characteristics of digital information goods for further research on our topic.The fourth chapter is the focus of this paper. In this chapter, we analyze different transaction modes in digital information goods market such as direct transaction mode, pipe functioned platform mode, channel functioned platform mode and merchant mode. In addition to this, we compare the market players' control on logistics, capital flow and information flow in different modes.The fifth chapter is another focus of our paper. This chapter makes research on direct mode. It represents a basic model on the basis of dynamic bargaining model and Bayesian equilibrium to analyze the game between digital information good providers and consumers and then get the equilibrium price under complete information and incomplete information respectively. Finally, we analyze the skimming pricing in direct modes.The sixth chapter is the research on platform mode. In this chapter, we analyze the function of platform providers in digital information goods market and the price formation process, equilibrium price and feasibility space of dealing in platform mode.The seventh chapter is the research on merchant mode. In this chapter, we analyze arbitrage strategy of merchants in digital information goods market and the price formation process, equilibrium price and feasibility space of dealing in merchant mode.The eighth chapter is another focus of our paper. Based on analysis of transaction costs and demand curve of transaction players, this chapter analyzes choice of digital information goods providers between direct transaction mode and intermediary mode, and influencing factor for intermediary choosing between platform providers and merchant. Finally we do a case study accordingly.In the last chapter, we summarize the main outcomes and innovations of our paper as well as topics of future research.