The Amazon Business Model, the Platform Economy and Executive Compensation: Three Essays in Search Theory
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Series
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CandidateBo Hu (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
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FieldOrganizations and Markets
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LocationAula, Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1105
Amsterdam -
Date and time
June 27, 2019
11:45 - 13:15
Abstract:
Search frictions characterize most real-world transactions. This thesis
is among the intellectual efforts to explain real-world phenomena through the
lens of search theory. Chapter 2 develops a directed search framework to
explain the emergence of a popular hybrid intermediation mode --- the
marketmaking middlemen. Amazon, among many others, is the most famous example.
Amazon is a middleman, as it specializes in buying and reselling products in
its name. It is also a market-maker as it offers a platform where the
participating buyers and sellers can search and trade with each other. Chapter
3 extends the baseline model of Chapter 2 on competing intermediaries. Chapter
4 turns to another highly debated topic, the incentive compensation of top
executives. It shows that the executive job ladder which stems from the search
frictions in the managerial labor market has a point in explaining the
firm-size incentive premium.
About the author:
Bo Hu holds a B.Sc. in Economics from the Southwestern University of
Finance and Economics in Chengdu, China (2009) and an M.Phil. in Econometrics
from Tinbergen Institute and Erasmus University Rotterdam (2014). In 2014, he
joined the Department of Economics at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam as a PhD
candidate. Starting from September of 2019, he will work as an assistant
professor at Fudan University in Shanghai