Behind the clicks: Can Amazon allocate user attention as it pleases?

IF 4.5 3区经济学 Q1 ECONOMICS

Information Economics and Policy Pub Date : 2024-12-01 DOI:10.1016/j.infoecopol.2024.101115

Rufus Rock, Ilan Strauss, Tim O'Reilly, Mariana Mazzucato

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

We investigate Amazon's ability to direct user clicks to more visually prominent search results, even as quality declines with the increasing prevalence of sponsored advertising products. We analyze product results from over 2,000 Amazon Marketplace search queries to estimate how a top three most clicked product's features (price and quality) and screen placement influence a user's clicks. Our econometric results show that the position of a product search result (“position bias”), adjusted for its relative prominence on the screen, strongly shapes whether a user clicks on it. Within the top five search results, where typically four are advertisements, users exhibit decreased sensitivity to a product's relevance or pricing. This allows Amazon's sponsored ads to leverage product prominence as a mechanism for rent extraction from users and producers. Regulatory frameworks might limit platforms from exploiting consumers' satisficing behaviour online, including via moderating excessive advertising in algorithmic search results.

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来源期刊

Information Economics and Policy ECONOMICS-

CiteScore

5.00

自引率

10.70%

发文量

期刊介绍： IEP is an international journal that aims to publish peer-reviewed policy-oriented research about the production, distribution and use of information, including these subjects: the economics of the telecommunications, mass media, and other information industries, the economics of innovation and intellectual property, the role of information in economic development, and the role of information and information technology in the functioning of markets. The purpose of the journal is to provide an interdisciplinary and international forum for theoretical and empirical research that addresses the needs of other researchers, government, and professionals who are involved in the policy-making process. IEP publishes research papers, short contributions, and surveys.