Alumna Aifang Ma, winner of a Laura Bassi scholarship

Aifang Ma,  alumna (PhD 2022) and associate researcher with the CEE, just received a Laura Bassi scholarship for editorial assistance on an academic article comparing the anti-trust regulation of digital economies in the USA, China, and the EU.

Currently a Lecturer and a Boya Post-doctoral Fellow at Peking University (China), Aifang Ma leads a comparative research programme on the antitrust regulation of economy in the USA, China, and the EU. She argues for a regulatory convergence over time along 3 dimensions: objectives, approaches, and interactive patterns between regulators and regulated firms. She identifies 3 explanatory factors: first, due to the globalisation of the digital economy, large platforms increasingly adopt similar growth paths and therefore create similar dilemmas for national governments. Second, the regulatory power of states increasingly matters in the geopolitical competition. Third, tech firms are becoming more cooperative towards regulators, whose intervention is, in addition, gaining wide support from citizens. A novel approach in the study of antitrust regulation in the digital economy, this comparative study could benefit policymakers dealing with digital regulation elsewhere in the world.

The Laura Bassi Scholarship was established in 2018 by Editing Press. It aims to provide editorial assistance to postgraduates and junior academics whose research focuses on neglected topics of study, broadly construed, within their disciplines.

In addition, Aifang Ma succeeded in being admitted into the 2024 CyberBRICS Fellowship Programme hosted at the Center for Technology and Society of Fundação Getulio Vargas, Rio de Janeiro.

Find out more

• about the Laura Bassi scholarship
• about Aifang Ma’s research through this recent article: A comparative look at antitrust regulation of the digital economy in Europe and China (Schuman Papers n°730, December 2023)
• Aifang Ma’s personal page