{"links":{"self":"http://dataportal.arc.gov.au/NCGP/API/grants/FT250100116"},"data":{"type":"grant-details","id":"FT250100116","attributes":{"code":"FT250100116","administering-organisation":"The University of Melbourne","announcement-administering-organisation":"The University of Melbourne","scheme-name":"ARC Future Fellowships","grant-status":"Active","funding-commencement-year":2025,"years-funded":4,"project-start-date":"2026-03-01","anticipated-end-date":"2030-03-01","grant-summary":"Informational Foundations of Monopoly Power in the Digital Age. This project aims to determine how digital information-sharing affects demand, pricing, competition, and welfare. Using the retail fuel industry as a real-world laboratory, this project expects to generate new knowledge on the informational foundations of monopoly power by combining unique large-scale, real-time datasets on firm and consumer behaviour, field experiments, and theoretical models. Expected outcomes include new economic frameworks for quantifying the competitive effects of digital information sharing. These frameworks should yield substantial economic and social benefits through new policy instruments to detect and disrupt anticompetitive conduct to ensure systemic competition – and not collusion – emerges in the digital age.","funding-current":1300254.00,"funding-at-announcement":1272992,"investigators-current":[{"title":"Prof","firstName":"David","familyName":"Byrne","roleName":"Future Fellowship","roleCode":"FT","isFellowship":true,"orcidIdentifier":"0000-0003-2133-0917 "}],"investigators-at-announcement":[{"title":"Prof","firstName":"David","familyName":"Byrne","roleName":"Future Fellowship","roleCode":"FT","isFellowship":true,"orcidIdentifier":"0000-0003-2133-0917 "}],"organisations-current":[{"organisationName":"The University of Melbourne","roleName":"Administering Organisation","state":"VIC"}],"organisations-at-announcement":[{"organisationName":"The University of Melbourne","roleName":"Administering Organisation","state":"VIC"}],"field-of-research":[{"isPrimary":true,"code":"3801","name":"Applied Economics","type":"FOR20"},{"isPrimary":false,"code":"380109","name":"Industry Economics and Industrial Organisation","type":"FOR20"}],"socio-economic-objective":[{"code":"150503","name":"Industrial Organisations","type":"SEO20"},{"code":"280108","name":"Expanding Knowledge In Economics","type":"SEO20"}],"international-collaboration":["England","United States of America"],"lief-register":[],"achievement-summary":null,"national-interest-test-statement":"Digital information sharing platforms are reshaping goods and services markets worldwide, presenting a double-edged sword for competition. They empower consumers to make informed decisions, which spurs competition between firms. However, they can also facilitate collusion. Australia is undertaking the largest competition policy reforms in 30 years to address these growing concerns. Yet, we lack evidence and an economic framework for understanding these platforms' competitive effects. Using the retail fuel industry as a real-world laboratory, this project will build such an evidence base and framework, combining unique datasets on consumer and firm behaviour with novel policy experiments and state-of-the-art economic models. Doing so will deliver twin benefits for competition policy: new data-driven methods to rapidly detect collusion and scalable technology-enabled policies that enable consumers to harness digital platforms in decision-making. To promote the adoption of this digitally evolved economic framework and these policies, the project will establish partnerships with Australian and international competition agencies. Enhancing policy will foster competition between firms, lowering prices in markets where digital platforms shape outcomes, such as healthcare, energy, food, and fuel. This will provide significant societal benefits, particularly for low-income groups, who derive more value from cost savings and face additional barriers to engaging with digital platforms."}}}