Strategic Inattention in Product Search
研究了在线市场中消费者面临搜索强度与价格歧视的权衡，通过理论和实验分析策略性忽视行为，质疑了平台对消费者的附加价值和现行监管的有效性。
Rapid technological developments in online markets fundamentally change the relationship between consumers and sellers. Online platforms can easily gather data about consumers’ search behavior, allowing for price discrimination. Therefore, product search becomes a strategic choice. Consumers face a tradeoff: Search intensely and receive a better fit at a potentially higher price or restrict search behavior, be strategically inattentive, and receive a worse fit but maybe a better deal. We study the resulting strategic buyer-seller interaction theoretically and experimentally. Our experimental results shed a critical light on the added value for consumers through the rise of online platforms and on the effectiveness of current regulations. This paper was accepted by Elena Katok, Special Issue on the Human-Algorithm Connection. Funding: This work was supported by the ZEW–Leibniz-Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung, and the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. Supplemental Material: The data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.03413 .