Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction / Robert G. Picard and Steven S. Wildman -- Media as multi-sided platforms / Jean J. Gabszewicz, Joana Resende and Nathalie Sonnac -- Vertical ownership, technology and programming content / Sung Wook Ji and David Waterman -- Economics of trade in media products / Steven S. Wildman and Sang Yup Lee -- Media clusters and metropolitan knowledge economy / Charlie Karlsson and Philippe Rouchy -- Economics of advertising: the role of commercial media / Anthony Dukes -- The pricing of advertising / Agostino Manduchi -- Economics of print media / Robert G. Picard -- The economics of television: excludability, rivalry, and imperfect competition / Patrick Barwise and Robert G. Picard -- The economics of broadband / Benjamin J. Bates, Nick Geidner and Yi-Xi Zhu -- Economics of peer-to-peer file exchange / Nodir Adilov, Peter J. Alexander and Brendan Cunningham -- Video games, virtual worlds and economics / Isaac Knowles, Edward Castronova and Travis Ross -- Digital technology, disruption and the market for news / Lisa George -- Economic analysis in media policy making / Jonathan D. Levy -- Media economics in competition law / Tom Björkroth and Mikko Grönlund -- Economics and economic impact of copyright / Ruth Towse -- Effects of taxes and subsidies on media services / Hans Jarle Kind and Jarle Møen.

Media industries and services present a complex set of challenges to economic analysis: challenges made more difficult by the technological changes that have been transforming the media sector. Research on the economics of media has made major advances in recent years and has contributed greatly to an increasingly sophisticated understanding of how media are shaped by economic forces, including those unleashed by new technologies. This Handbook examines the variety of contexts and infrastructures in which content is produced and distributed and how these influence the types of media products and services available, their pricing, their consumption and the public policies related to them. The original contributions provide a state-of-the-art guide to the most recent thinking and research findings on the broad range of media-related topics addressed by economics research. Written by leading scholars, this book should be informative and of practical value for advanced students, policy makers, industry professionals, economists, media economists, and other academics.