Özlem Bedre Defolie

Özlem Bedre-Defolie is an associate professor of economics (with tenure) at ESMT Berlin since 2017, a CEPR research fellow since December 2020, and MaCCI research fellow since January 2022. She is an associate professor II (part-time position) at the University of Bergen and Bergen Center for Competition Law and Economics (BECCLE) since August 2021. She serves as an associate editor at the RAND Journal of Economics since September 2020 and as a director at the European Association for Research in Industrial Economics since October 2020.

Research:

Özlem’s research areas are applied microeconomic theory and industrial organization. She studies economics of multi-sided platforms, multiproduct firms, and vertical contracts focusing on antitrust and regulation questions. Her research has been published in leading economics, marketing, and industrial organization journals, including American Economic Review, Journal of Economic Theory, American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, Marketing Science, and International Journal of Industrial Organization. She has been awarded the prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Starting grant (2020-2025) for her work investigating optimal variety and quality provision by digital platforms.

Teaching:

Özlem has taught the courses Quantitative Methods, Competitive and Dynamic Pricing, Business Economics, and Matchmakers in the Digital Economy to MBA and Master’s in Management students as well as Matchmakers in the Digital Economy for the blended Telekom MBA program. She has also regularly taught parts of the courses Industrial Organization/Management Science II, Regulation in Product Markets, and Microeconomics II in the PhD program of the Berlin School of Economics (BSE, formerly BDPEMS).

History:

Özlem joined ESMT Berlin in January 2010 as an assistant professor. She received her PhD in economics (with highest distinction) from Toulouse School of Economics (TSE) in France and holds an MSc in economic theory and econometrics from TSE. Before moving to Toulouse, Bedre-Defolie obtained a BA in economics and a BSc in mathematics from Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey.

Before joining ESMT, she spent a year in Paris as a postdoctoral research fellow at Ecole Polytechnique. During the first two years of her appointment at ESMT, she worked as a part-time visiting scholar in the research department of the financial stability wing of Norges Bank, the central bank of Norway. She was an associate professor II (part-time position) at University of Bergen and Bergen Center for Competition Law and Economics (BECCLE) from January 2018 to January 2021.

EDUCATION

• PhD (University of Toulouse 1)
• MSc (University of Toulouse 1)
• BA (Boğaziçi University)
• BSc (Boğaziçi University)

Research

Industrial organization, economics of competition and regulation. In particular, pricing in two-sided markets, vertical relationships, contract theory, and antitrust issues related to buyer power.

Teaching

Competitive and Dynamic Pricing (full-time MBA elective course at ESMT), Industrial Organization (Berlin Doctoral Program in Economics and Management Science (BDPEMS)), Regulation in Vertical Markets (1st year PhD elective course, Research Training Group and BDPEMS).

Expertise

Topics

• buyer power, competition economics, contracting, distribution channels, economics, incentive contracts, industrial organization, market failures, microeconomics, negotiation, payment systems, pricing policy, pricing policy (in industrial markets), retail sector, two-sided markets

Industries

• banking, regulation, retail, telecommunications