An empirical study of observational learning
利用在线音乐市场数据，研究发现观察学习对消费者、高质量音乐生产者和平台都有益，且固定定价会因减少实验激励而损害学习效果，降低消费者剩余但增加平台预期收入。
This article provides an empirical examination of observational learning. Using data from an online market for music, I find that observational learning benefits consumers, producers of high‐quality music, and the online platform. I also study the role of pricing as a friction to the learning process by comparing outcomes under demand‐based pricing to counterfactual pricing schemes. I find that employing a fixed price (the industry standard) can hamper learning by reducing the incentive to experiment, resulting in less consumer surplus, but more expected revenue for the platform.