数据垄断问题研究进展

Research Progress on Data Monopoly

在数字经济时代,数据要素在经济发展中的作用日益凸显,但是,数据垄断问题制约了数据要素价值的释放。本文首先探讨了数据垄断的内涵,然后从数据要素本身的特性出发分析数据垄断问题的成因,并从宏观经济效率和微观用户福利两个方面综述数据垄断带来的负面影响。之后,本文从数据共享、用户数据使用限制、数据可携带权与用户数据可迁移性三个方面,重点分析当前主要的数据垄断治理方式及政策。最后,本文总结并提出了数据垄断治理研究的未来可拓展方向,以期为我国加快构建数据基础制度、完善数据治理的相关研究和政策实践提供有益启示。

Strengthening platform antitrust and data governance has become a global consensus.In particular,how to maximize the value of data and manage the problem of data monopoly through the establishment and improvement of data systems is one of the hot spots in the academic circle.This paper systematically reviews and summarizes the research progress on data monopoly in existing foreign literature.Among them,the paper focuses on the governance methods of data monopoly and looks forward to the research directions in the future.In the first part,this paper discusses the relationship between data and market monopoly and discusses the existing literature's standards for enterprises to use data to implement monopoly behavior.Data monopoly includes two aspects:one is the monopoly of data resources by enterprises;the other is that enterprises take advantage of data resources and use data as a tool to maintain and strengthen their monopoly position in the market and obtain monopoly profits.When data monopoly has a negative impact on social welfare,data monopoly becomes a problem that needs to be addressed.In the second part,this paper introduces the causes and the negative effects of data monopoly.Data can cause or exacerbate market monopoly problems for three reasons:data can become a barrier to market entry,strengthen the advantages of monopolies,and become a tool for monopolies to carry out monopolistic behavior.The negative effects of data monopoly can be summarized from two aspects:Firstly,data monopoly will inhibit market competition and lead to the decline of economic efficiency.Secondly,enterprises rely on data monopoly to gain excess profits,which will occupy consumer surplus and ultimately damage user welfare,which also involves consumer privacy issues.In the third part,this paper introduces the role of data systems in anti-monopoly.Specifically,this paper summarizes the existing research from three aspects:data sharing,limitation of user data use,and data portability.(1)Data sharing can reduce the inequality in the possession of data resources and alleviate the problem of data monopoly.However,data sharing has the potential to reduce the incentive for enterprises to make data investments,which will trigger new efficiency losses.(2)Restricting the use of user data by enterprises can reduce monopoly behaviors such as price discrimination by enterprises,thus improving user welfare.At the same time,it can reduce the negative utility caused by user privacy issues.On the other hand,restricting the use of user data must also consider the loss of social welfare caused by reducing the use of data.Moreover,because large and small firms differ in their ability to bear regulatory costs,policies can backfire,exacerbating imbalances among firms.(3)The portability of personal data and the transferability of user data between platforms are currently one of the key focuses of data systems implemented in major countries around the world.From the conclusions of existing research,it seems that this is the most promising direction to alleviate the problem of data monopoly.However,it is necessary to further consider the effects of privacy paradox,data externalities,and strategic behaviors of monopolies on policy effects.Finally,this paper introduces the future research direction of data monopoly governance.Whether from the academic research progress or the current social reality,the research on data monopoly is in the rising period.There are at least three directions for future research.First,consider the heterogeneous effects of data monopoly governance policies between countries or industries;second,strengthen the evaluation of the effects of data monopoly governance policies to provide more empirical evidence for the consequences of policies;third,consider the transnational spillover effects of data governance policies and explore transnational cooperation ways of data governance.It is hoped that this paper can provide useful insights to accelerate the construction of the data system and improve the related research and policy practice of data governance.