IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/snbeco/v3y2023i8d10.1007_s43546-023-00509-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Taxation on duopoly e-commerce platforms and their search environments

Author

Listed:
  • Sangita Poddar

    (Jadavpur University)

  • Tanmoyee Banerjee(Chatterjee)

    (Jadavpur University)

  • Swapnendu Banerjee

    (Jadavpur University)

Abstract

The paper studies the issue of tax incidence for duopoly e-commerce platforms where buyers evaluate two platforms before making any purchase, and platforms provide a favourable environment for smooth and effortless search process. We determine optimal level of prices and search environments by constructing a simple game-theoretic model. Sensitivity analysis is conducted to derive the effects of change in tax on search environment and prices paid by consumers. Both the platforms improve their search environments in response to increase in tax rate. The comparison of market equilibrium with social optimum indicates that duopoly e-commerce platforms provide lower level of search environments compared to social optimum level for a same level of tax.

Suggested Citation

  • Sangita Poddar & Tanmoyee Banerjee(Chatterjee) & Swapnendu Banerjee, 2023. "Taxation on duopoly e-commerce platforms and their search environments," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 3(8), pages 1-20, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:snbeco:v:3:y:2023:i:8:d:10.1007_s43546-023-00509-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s43546-023-00509-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s43546-023-00509-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s43546-023-00509-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chakravarty, Amiya K. & Werner, Adrian S., 2011. "Telecom service provider portal: Revenue sharing and outsourcing," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 215(1), pages 289-300, November.
    2. Caillaud, Bernard & Jullien, Bruno, 2003. "Chicken & Egg: Competition among Intermediation Service Providers," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 34(2), pages 309-328, Summer.
    3. Marc Rysman, 2009. "The Economics of Two-Sided Markets," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(3), pages 125-143, Summer.
    4. Kfir Eliaz & Ran Spiegler, 2016. "Search Design and Broad Matching," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(3), pages 563-586, March.
    5. Marc Bourreau & Bernard Caillaud & Romain De Nijs, 2018. "Taxation of a digital monopoly platform," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 20(1), pages 40-51, February.
    6. Kind, Hans Jarle & Koethenbuerger, Marko & Schjelderup, Guttorm, 2008. "Efficiency enhancing taxation in two-sided markets," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(5-6), pages 1531-1539, June.
    7. Maya Bacache‐Beauvallet & Francis Bloch, 2018. "Special issue on taxation in the digital economy," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 20(1), pages 5-8, February.
    8. Jean-Charles Rochet & Jean Tirole, 2003. "Platform Competition in Two-Sided Markets," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 1(4), pages 990-1029, June.
    9. Kind, Hans Jarle & Koethenbuerger, Marko & Schjelderup, Guttorm, 2009. "On revenue and welfare dominance of ad valorem taxes in two-sided markets," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 104(2), pages 86-88, August.
    10. Doh-Shin Jeon & Jean-Charles Rochet, 2010. "The Pricing of Academic Journals: A Two-Sided Market Perspective," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(2), pages 222-255, May.
    11. Maya Bacache-Beauvallet, 2018. "Special issue on taxation in the digital economy," Post-Print hal-02163803, HAL.
    12. Bruno Jullien, 2005. "Two-sided Markets and Electronic Intermediaries," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 51(2-3), pages 233-260.
    13. Anthony Dukes & Lin Liu, 2016. "Online Shopping Intermediaries: The Strategic Design of Search Environments," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(4), pages 1064-1077, April.
    14. Avinadav, Tal & Chernonog, Tatyana & Khmelnitsky, Eugene, 2021. "Revenue-sharing between developers of virtual products and platform distributors," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 290(3), pages 927-945.
    15. Sonntag, Axel, 2015. "Search costs and adaptive consumers: Short time delays do not affect choice quality," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 64-79.
    16. Minhyuk Sur & Deok-Joo Lee & Kyung-Taek Kim, 2019. "Optimal revenue sharing in platform markets: a Stackelberg model," Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 18(4), pages 317-331, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bajo-Buenestado, Raúl & Kinateder, Markus, 2019. "Armstrong meets Rochet–Tirole: On the equivalence of different pricing structures in two-sided markets," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 43-46.
    2. Paul Belleflamme & Eric Toulemonde, 2016. "Tax Incidence on Competing Two-Sided Platforms: Lucky Break or Double Jeopardy," CESifo Working Paper Series 5882, CESifo.
    3. Junic Kim & Jaewook Yoo, 2019. "Platform Growth Model: The Four Stages of Growth Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-16, October.
    4. Wang, Jin, 2018. "Quality screening and information disclosure in two-sided markets," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 183-188.
    5. Mark Armstrong, 2021. "Plan S: An economist's perspective," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(8), pages 2017-2026, December.
    6. Rong Fan & Xuegang & Ban, 2020. "Commuting Service Platform: Concept and Analysis," Papers 2001.03646, arXiv.org.
    7. Aloui, Chokri & Jebsi, Khaïreddine, 2016. "Platform optimal capacity sharing: Willing to pay more does not guarantee a larger capacity share," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 276-288.
    8. Fan, Rong & Ban, Xuegang (Jeff), 2022. "Commuting service platform: Concept and analysis," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 18-51.
    9. Wang, Jin, 2021. "Do birds of a feather flock together? Platform’s quality screening and end-users’ choices theory and empirical study of online trading platforms," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    10. von Ehrlich, Maximilian & Greiner, Tanja, 2013. "The role of online platforms for media markets — Two-dimensional spatial competition in a two-sided market," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 723-737.
    11. Lam, W., 2015. "Switching Costs in Two-sided Markets," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2015024, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    12. Renato Gomes & Alessandro Pavan, 2013. "Cross-Subsidization and Matching Design," Discussion Papers 1559, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.
    13. David S. Evans & Richard Schmalensee, 2005. "The economics of interchange fees and their regulation : an overview," Proceedings – Payments System Research Conferences, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, issue May, pages 73-120.
    14. Vincent Malardé & Thierry Pénard, 2022. "The role of local network effects and spatial effects in the growth of digital platforms: Evidence from the carpooling site iDVROOM [Le rôle des effets de réseau locaux et des effets spatiaux dans ," Post-Print hal-03712336, HAL.
    15. Jonathan Levin, 2011. "The Economics of Internet Markets," Discussion Papers 10-018, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    16. Wei Zhou & Zidong Wang, 2020. "Competing for Search Traffic in Query Markets: Entry Strategy, Platform Design, and Entrepreneurship," Working Papers 20-12, NET Institute.
    17. Bruno Jullien & Alessandro Pavan, 2013. "Platform Competition under Dispersed Information," Discussion Papers 1568, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.
    18. Gawer, Annabelle, 2014. "Bridging differing perspectives on technological platforms: Toward an integrative framework," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(7), pages 1239-1249.
    19. Ginger Zhe Jin & Marc Rysman, 2015. "Platform Pricing at Sports Card Conventions," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(4), pages 704-735, December.
    20. Armando José Garcia Pires, 2023. "Ad-Valorem Taxes, Prices and Content Diversification in the News Market," Games, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-28, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    E-commerce platform; Search environment; Social welfare; Tax incidence;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • L22 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Organization and Market Structure
    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:snbeco:v:3:y:2023:i:8:d:10.1007_s43546-023-00509-1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.