PhD Defense M. Bonani

This dissertation contains three essays on different topics related to technology standards. The first essay studies the potential impact of unifying two incompatible standards for wireless networks on firms’ coverage investment choices, profits, prices, and consumer welfare in the U.S. wireless telecommunications market. The second essay exploits the patent policy change of a Standard Development Organization to quantify the effects of more restrictive (to technology developers) patent policies on the firms’ incentives to innovate in the context of technology standards. The third and final essay of the dissertation investigates the relationship between joining a standardization project and the firms’ patent portfolio choices.

Michela Bonani (Bologna, Italy, 1989) received her BA in Economics and Management at Bocconi University in 2011. She obtained her MSc in Economics at Bocconi University in 2014. After that, she worked for two and half years as an economist at research institutes. In September 2017, she started as a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Economics at TiSEM, Tilburg University, under the supervision of dr. Florian Schütt and dr. Christoph B.T. Walsh.

• Location: Cobbenhagen building, Aula
• Supervisor: Prof. T.J. Klein
• Co-supervisors: Dr. F. Schütt, Dr. C.B.T. Walsh