Mr Linus Hoffmann

Personal statement

I use law & economics approaches to think about competition, commodification and distribution in the digital economy. 

My current research focuses on strategies that digital platforms employ to control and monetise various pieces of digital information. I explore how competition law enforcement reshapes that landscape of control using analytical frameworks from private law theory.

Beyond competition law, I am interested in retracing the broader movement of commodification in the digital economy. When formerly untapped pieces of information come under private control and start being valued and exchanged in a commercial context, questions arise about how the law:

- embeds these resources as commercial goods

- influences their allocation between market participants

- distributes the economic surplus they generate.

Recent research outputs include a reflection on the notion of noise in the digital economy, and how the separation of relevant information from a background of noise has itself become an object of commodification in cyberspace. 

For future projects, I welcome collaborations with computer scientists, in particular with a specialisation in natural language processing.