Home \ Faculty Details \ Sougata Poddar
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  • Phone:

  • Email:

    spoddar@pmu.edu.sa

  • Office No:

    F- 085

  • Sougata Poddar

  • Job Title :

    Associate Professor

  • College :

    College of Business Administration


  • Department :

    Accounting & Finance


Sougata received his PhD in Economics from Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE) at the Universite Catholique de Louvain (UC Louvain) in Belgium. Sougata has taught Economics and Business in various leading universities worldwide for several years. 
He had held faculty positions at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, National University of Singapore (NUS), IGIDR in India, Hanyang University in South Korea, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore, Auckland University of Technology (AUT) in New Zealand, Chapman University and University of California, Irvine in USA.
He has published widely in the field of Strategic Behavior of Firms, Technology Transfer and Licensing, Economics of Digital Piracy and Copyright Issues. 
His publications appeared in Economic Theory, Economics Letters, International Journal of Industrial Organization, Oxford Economic Papers, Economic Record, Canadian Journal of Economics, Review of Industrial Organization, Journal of Public Economic Theory among other leading journals of economics and generated significant research impact and citations.
His general research focus is to understand and analyze the impact of consumer behavior, firm strategies, emerging technologies and technology trends in the decision-making process of firms and competition policies from government agencies.
Sougata’s current research focuses to explore what causes the recent dominance of big firms in some industries, particularly the tech industry, and its impact on the market and the society. Consequently, the need is to reform the existing competition policies and firm regulations to let the market operate more efficiently and benefit the greater society in a more equitable way. Sougata is excited to work and collaborate in this important area of research.
Sougata continues to work on these issues alongside teaching and guiding young researcher scholars; and serve the academic community at large.

Ph.D. in Economics from Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE) and European Doctoral Program, Universite Catholique de Louvain, Belgium.

Master of Statistics (M. Stat) and Bachelor of Statistics (B. Stat) from Indian Statistical Institute (ISI).

 

Journal Articles (Forthcoming or Published in 2023-2026):

  1. Patient Well-Being, Hospital-Physician Relationship under Other-Regarding Behavior (joint with Banerjee and Mukherjee). Revise and Resubmit from The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy.
  1. Technological improvement, innovation quality and anti-piracy enforcement (joint with Banerjee). Forthcoming in European Journal of Law and Economics.
  2. Optimal Incentives with Other-regarding Principal and Agents (joint with Banerjee and Mukherjee). Forthcoming in Journal of Public Economic Theory.
  3. Cross Ownership and Product Differentiation (joint with Banerjee and Mukherjee) – Forthcoming in Canadian Journal of Economics.
  4. Pro-competitive horizontal merger with cost reducing investments and network externalities (joint with Banerjee and Mukherjee) – Forthcoming in Economic Theory Bulletin.
  5. Takeovers and licensing in spatial competition ((joint with Fauli-Oller and Sandonís) – Forthcoming in Economics of Innovation and New Technology.
  6. Patent Licensing and Strategic Shelving (joint with Lu, Banerjee, and Ghosh) – Review of Industrial Organization, Vol. 66, 2025.
  7. Mergers and Licensing with Horizontal Differentiation (joint with Fauli-Oller and Sandonís) – Journal of Public Economic Theory, Vol. 26, 2024.
  8. Exclusive and Non-Exclusive Licensing with Shelving (joint with Yuanzhu Lu). Mathematical Social Sciences, Vol 126, 2023.
  9. Optimal Patent Licensing – Two- or Three-Part Tariff (joint with S. Banerjee and A. Mukherjee). Journal of Public Economic Theory, Vol. 25, 2023. This paper received enough downloads to rank within the top 10% of papers published in JPET.

 

Working Papers

  1. Product innovation and pro-competitive horizontal merger with network externalities (joint with Banerjee and Mukherjee).
  2. Product Innovation, Licensing and Strategic Shelving (joint with Yuanzhu Lu).

 

Journal Articles (Published before 2023):

  1. Technology Selling and Innovation with Bargaining (joint with Swapnendu Banerjee and Yuanzhu Lu). Bulletin of Economic Research, Vol. 73, 2021.
  2. Technology Transfer in Spatial Competition when Licensees are Asymmetric (joint with S. Banerjee and M. Ghosh). The Manchester School, – Vol 89, 2021.
  3. Technology Licensing and Innovation – A Correction on Two-Part Tariff Analysis (joint with S. Banerjee and Yuanzhu Lu). Economics Letters, Vol. 183, 2019.
  4. To sell or not to sell’: Licensing versus Selling by an Outside Innovator (joint with Swapnendu Banerjee). Economic Modelling, Vol. 76, 2019.
  5. Limiting End-user Piracy - The Role of Private and Public Anti-Piracy Measure (joint with Yuanzhu Lu). Annals of Economics and Finance, Vol. 20-1, 2019.
  6. Strategic Choice of Network Externality and its Impact on Digital Piracy (joint with Yuanzhu Lu). Review of Industrial Organization, Vol. 51, 2018.
  7. Impact of Network Externality on End-User Piracy: Revisited (joint with Yuanzhu Lu). Economics Bulletin, Vol. 37, 2017.
  8. Patent Licensing in Spatial Models (joint with Y. Lu). Economic Modelling, Vol. 42, 2014.
  9. An Introduction to the Special Issue - Sustainable Economic Development: Policies and Strategies (joint with S. Kumar and R. Sen), New Zealand Economic Papers, Vol. 48, 2014.
  10. Accommodation or Deterrence in the Face of Commercial Piracy: The Impact of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Protections (joint with Yuanzhu Lu). Oxford Economic Papers, Volume 64, No. 3, 2012.
  11. Patent Licensing from High-Cost to Low-Cost Firm (joint with Uday Bhanu Sinha). Economic Record, Vol. 86, Issue. 274, 2010.
  12. Product Innovation and Stability of Collusion (joint with Bibhas Saha). Economics Bulletin, Volume 30, No. 2, 2010.
  13. Endogenous Timing in a Mixed Duopoly and Private Duopoly – Capacity then Quantity Game: The Linear Demand case (joint with Yuanzhu Lu). Australian Economic Papers, Volume 48, No. 2, 2009.
  14. Firm Ownership, Product Differentiation and Welfare (joint with Yuanzhu Lu). The Manchester School, Volume 75, No. 2, 2007.
  15. Music Product as a Durable Good and Online Piracy. Review of Economic Research on Copyright Issues, Volume 3, No. 2, 2006.
  16. The Choice of Capacity in Mixed Duopoly under Demand Uncertainty (joint with Yuanzhu Lu). The Manchester School, Volume 74 No. 3, 2006.
  17. Mixed Oligopoly and the Choice of Capacity (joint with Yuanzhu Lu). Research in Economics, (formerly Recherché Economiche) Vol. 59, Issue. 4, 2005.
  18. On Patent Licensing in Spatial Competition (joint with Uday Bhanu Sinha). Economic Record, Volume 80, Number 249, 2004.
  19. Strategic choice in durable goods market when firms move simultaneously. Research in Economics; Volume 58, 2004.
  20. Research Joint Ventures (RJVs) in Product Innovation and Cartel Stability (joint with Luca Lambertini and Dan Sasaki). Review of Economic Design, Vol. 7, No.4, 2003.
  21. Excess capacity: A Note. Keio Economic Studies; Vol. 40 No. 1, 2003.
  22. Price Versus Quantity Revisited (joint with Luca Lambertini and Dan Sasaki). Economia Politica, Volume 20, December 2003.
  23. The Strategic Benefit from Advance Production (joint with Dan Sasaki), European Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 18, No. 3, 2002.
  24. Research Joint Ventures and Price Collusion under Endogenous Product Differentiation (Lambertini and Sasaki), International Journal of Industrial Organization, Vol. 20, 6, 2002.
  25. Network Structure and Entry in the Deregulated Airline Industry (joint with Joseph Berechman and Oz Shy). Keio Economic Studies, Volume 35, Number 2, 1998.
  26. Standardization and the Stability of Collusion (joint with Luca Lambertini and Dan Sasaki), Economics Letters, Vol. 58, No. 3, 1998.
  27. Demand Fluctuations and Capacity Utilization under Duopoly (joint with Jean Gabszewicz), Economic Theory, Vol. 10, No. 1, 1997.

 

Visiting Professor – Tippie College of Business, The University of Iowa, Iowa, USA, Aug 2023 – Present.

My research broadly focuses on Applied Microeconomic Theory and Industrial Organization. More specifically, I use tools of game theory to understand and explain various economic issues with firm behavior in oligopolistic markets. In recent years, I have been looking into the area of innovation, technology transfer and strategic patent licensing in order to understand the dominance of a few large tech-firms and its implications economywide.

I am also interested and have done some work in the area digital piracy, copyright violations, IPR protections and competition policy. I plan to explore more in this area as well.

I have conducted research to study problems in economics that are fundamental, challenging and difficult to solve. The goal of my research is to develop economic theories, testable economic models and results that are useful for researchers, business practitioners and policymakers. I have done research which is relevant to industry and policy; and require the application of theories to solve real world problems. My research has been published in the leading professional journals in economics and generated significant research impact and citations. Generally, I keep my research agenda quite open, but the main focus changes from time to time. Presently, I am conducting research in the following areas.

 

  • Dominance of Big Tech Companies and Its Economic Implications

 

In this new digital age, one of the fundamental questions I ask is why the big-tech firms should be regulated differently. It is high time we investigate this problem rather closely as the existing regulatory framework is turning out to be inadequate to address it. Without new regulations, the dominance of a few big tech companies will keep growing and will eventually lead to significant reduction in market competition. The consequence is the persistence of monopoly and wealth flowing into few deep pockets. This will increase overall income inequality in society and eventually undermining democracy. In this backdrop, in my research I try to provide new insights to show how market dominance of a firm can arise just through strategic patent licensing contracts for new innovations. In other words, the very nature of licensing contracts between a patentee (innovator) and licensee can lead to market dominance surprisingly.

  • Innovation, Licensing and Technology Transfer – This area of research is broadly related to the previous topic mentioned above. We know innovation of new technology is essential for economic prosperity and the diffusion of new technology is crucial for that process. In many markets, we observe firms pay to acquire new technologies (patents), however, they do not use them for their use i.e. shelve them. By shelving, the technology acquiring firm prevents its competitor from using it and thus maintains its strategic advantage. While this may happen often when an innovator uses exclusive licensing to transfer a technology where potential licensees have asymmetric absorptive capacities, I also explore when shelving will not happen, and technology will be used. In that context, I also study various modes of technology transfer and their implications on competition and welfare.
  • Copyright Violations and IPR Protection – This is the other area of my research on digital piracy and IPR protection. Protecting copyrighted material is necessary to provide incentives for future innovation for the copyright holder. IPR laws play an important role in this process. In some of my research, I show how much public effort (from government and policymakers) and private effort (from copyright holders) are necessary to reduce the problem of copyright violations or piracy in a given economic environment which also induces innovation and enhance welfare.

 

 

  1. Visiting Researcher – CORE (Center for OR and Econometrics), Belgium, June 2025.
  2. Associate Professor - Argyros School of Business and Economics, Chapman University, California, USA, July 2017 – June 2023
  3. Visiting Associate Professor, University of Redlands, USA, July 2015 – June 2017.
  4. Associate Professor of Economics (Tenured), Faculty of Business, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand, January 2012 – June 2015.
  5. Visiting Associate Professor - Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Jan 2010 - Dec 2011.
  6. Associate Professor of Economics - Hanyang University, Korea, Jun 2008 – Dec 2011
  7. Assistant Professor - National University of Singapore, Jun 1999 – Jun 2008.
  8. Assistant Professor - IGIDR, Mumbai, India, Jan 1998 – June 1999.
  9. Postdoctoral Fellow - University of Copenhagen, Denmark, Aug 96 – Sept 97.

Extensive teaching experience (25 years) in the following areas. I also specialize in teaching for adult working professionals (Evening courses).

  1. Principles of Macroeconomics – Tippe College of Business, University of Iowa (Large Sections - 700 students) – 2024, 2025.
  2. Industry Analysis - Tippe College of Business, University of Iowa – Advanced Undergraduate – Spring 2024, 2025.
  3. Principles of Micro and Microeconomics – Economics Program (Chapman University).
  4. Business Economics - MBA Program (Chapman, UCI California and IIFT, India)
  5. Statistics for Data Science – MBA Program (UCI Paul Merage School of Business)
  6. Managerial Economics – Undergraduate, postgraduate level and MBA Program
  7. Advanced Specialized/Seminar Courses: Industrial Organization, Game Theory and Applications, Mathematical Economics and Topics in Economics.

 

 

Microeconomics, Industrial Organization, Applied Game Theory, Spatial Economics, Patent Licensing, Digital Piracy, Copyright Violations and IPR protections, Competition Policy