dr. Jens Prüfer

Bio

Jens Prüfer is Director of the Tilburg Law and Economics Center (TILEC), Professor of Economics at the University of East Anglia’s School of Economics, Associate Professor at Tilburg University's Department of Economics, and Deputy Director of the Centre for Competition Policy (CCP). His research focuses on institutional and organizational questions, applying economic methodology to a broad set of disciplines, including law, management, political science, history, religious studies, and computer science. He studied Economics and Chinese studies in Tübingen (Germany) and Singapore and holds a PhD in Economics from Goethe University Frankfurt. Jens Prüfer is a member of the expert group to the EU Observatory on the Online Platform Economy. He is the editor of sioe.org, the website of the Society for Institutional and Organizational Economics, where he also regularly blogs, and a Mercator Fellow at the University of Passau (“Digital Platform Ecosystems”).

Full CV is here.

Expertise

• Institutional Economics: study of economic governance institutions, which help to support cooperation/honest trade with and without the law.
• Organizational Economics: economics of non-firm organizations such as nonprofits, cooperatives, social networks, clubs, associations or foundations. Why do these organizations exist and (how) do they behave differently in competitive markets?
• Law & Economics: antitrust policy and ‘order without law’.
• Industrial Organization: competition policy, regulation and the dependence of those issues on the governance structure of competitors.
• Political Economics: role of the media for political outcomes both in democracies and in autocracies.
• Economics of Innovation: effects of datafication/big data on markets, polities, societies, and jurisdictions.
• Economics of Digital Transformation: effects of digitization, datafication, and AI on markets, polities, societies, and jurisdictions.

Courses

• Microeconomics: Theory and Analysis
• Microeconomics for EOR
• Free Elective Master Economics
• Career Development Economics

Highlights

Key Publications:  

• Dengler, Sebastian and Jens Prüfer (2021), “Consumers’ Privacy Choices in the Era of Big Data,” Games and Economic Behavior, 130: 499–520.
• Prüfer, Jens and Christoph Schottmüller (2021), “Competing with Big Data,” Journal of Industrial Economics, 69: 967-1008.
• Filistrucchi, Lapo and Jens Prüfer (2019), “Faithful Strategies: How Religion Shapes Nonprofit Management,” Management Science, 65(1), 188-208. Online Appendix.
• Prüfer, Jens (2016), “Business Associations and Private Ordering,” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, 32(2), 306-358.
• Masten, Scott E. and Jens Prüfer (2014), “On the Evolution of Collective Enforcement Institutions: Communities and Courts,” Journal of Legal Studies, 43(2), 359-400.

Recent publications

1. Membership, governance, and lobbying in standard-setting organizations

   Fiedler, C., Larrain Aylwin, M. J., & Prüfer, J. (2023). Membership, governance, and lobbying in standard-setting organizations. Research Policy, 52(6), Article 104761.

2. Consumers’ privacy choices in the era of big data

   Dengler, S., & Prüfer, J. (2021). Consumers’ privacy choices in the era of big data. Games and Economic Behavior, 130, 499-520.

3. Governance of data sharing - A law & economics proposal

   Graef, I., & Prüfer, J. (2021). Governance of data sharing: A law & economics proposal. Research Policy, 50(9), Article 104330.

4. Governance of Data Sharing - a Law & Economics Proposal

   Graef, I., & Prüfer, J. (2021). Governance of Data Sharing: a Law & Economics Proposal. (CentER Discussion Paper; Vol. 2021-004). CentER, Center for Economic Research.

5. Governance of Data Sharing - A Law & Economics Proposal

   Graef, I., & Prüfer, J. (2021). Governance of Data Sharing: A Law & Economics Proposal. (TILEC Discussion Paper; Vol. 2021-001). TILEC.