The Economics of the Cloud

Résumé

The aim of this report is to present the main facets of the development of cloud services, its economics and the related policy issues. We begin by surveying the sector, its growth and the significant increase in concentration in recent years. We then discuss the tools that economics gives us to study these phenomena before turning to a critical analysis of some of the most prominent policy reports which have been produced on the topic. We finally turn to a more detailed look at the (meagre) economic literature on the industry and of the economic theories which could be used for deeper analysis.