International Protection of Consumer Data

Yongmin Chen, Xiny Hua () and Keith Maskus

No 202004, HKUST CEP Working Papers Series from HKUST Center for Economic Policy

Abstract: We study the international protection of consumer data in a model where data from product sales generate additional revenue to firms but disutility to consumers. When data usage lacks transparency, a firm suffers a commitment problem and overuses consumer data. As transparency increases, the firm may adjust prices inefficiently across countries with different privacy preferences. Contrary to the result in the single-country case, more transparency can exacerbate data-usage and output distortions in the global economy, and unilaterally-imposed regulation on data usage may reduce global welfare. There can be substantial gains from international coordination – though not necessarily uniformity – of data regulations.

Keywords: consumer data; privacy; multinational Örm; regulation; data localization; international coordination (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D18 F23 L15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-com, nep-int, nep-mic and nep-opm
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Related works:
Journal Article: International protection of consumer data (2021)
Working Paper: International Protection of Consumer Data (2020)
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