Gaur-gaurkoak

INARBE organiza este seminario que se celebrará en la sala de conferencias del edificio Jerónimo de Ayanz el día 2 de abril a las 12:00h.

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between interchange fees and investment incentives in the card payment market, a topic of ongoing debate between card payment platforms and antitrust authorities. We extend the two-sided market model to analyze competition between two card payment platforms that invest in service quality improvements. Our model explicitly accounts for both merchants´ decisions to accept cards and customers´ decisions to use them.  We find that interchange fees and investments can act as either strategic complements or substitutes, depending on two factors: the difficulty of innovation and the degree of substitutability between card payment platforms and alternative payment methods. When they serve as strategic complements, there is a concern that reducing interchange fees may weaken incentives for innovation. Conversely, when they function as strategic substitutes, lowering interchange fees can stimulate innovation by pushing platforms to compete through quality improvements rather than relying on interchange fees.

Biography

Currently, I am an Assistant Professor at the Public University of Navarra (UPNA). I received my Ph.D. in Applied Economics from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) with Cum Laude distinction under the supervision of Dr. Angel Luis Lopez in 2020. Following that, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Business Economics Department at the University of Balearic Islands (UIB), collaborating closely with Dr. Jozsef Sakovics Domolky. Prior to my Ph.D., I graduated from a M.Sc. in Applied Research in Economics and Business (MAREB) from UAB and another M.Sc. in Economic System Planning from Azad University of Tehran, Iran. I also hold a B.Sc. in Applied Mathematics from Public University of Damghan, Iran.

My research primarily focuses on industrial organization, with an emphasis on two-sided market theory and the digital economy, incorporating both theoretical and empirical approaches.