The Empirical Economics of Online Attention

40 Pages Posted: 9 Jul 2016 Last revised: 22 Jun 2017

See all articles by Andre Boik

Andre Boik

University of California, Davis - Department of Economics

Shane M. Greenstein

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Harvard University - Technology & Operations Management Unit

Jeffrey Prince

Kelley School of Business, Indiana University

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: June 2017

Abstract

In several markets, firms compete not for consumer expenditure but instead for consumer attention. We model and characterize how households allocate their scarce attention in arguably the largest market for attention: the Internet. Our characterization of household attention allocation operates along three dimensions: how much attention is allocated, where that attention is allocated, and how that attention is allocated. Using click-stream data for thousands of U.S. households, we assess if and how attention allocation on each dimension changed between 2008 and 2013, a time of large increases in online offerings. We identify vast and expected changes in where households allocate their attention (away from chat and news towards video and social media), and yet we simultaneously identify remarkable stability in how much attention is allocated and how it is allocated. Specifically, we identify (i) persistence in the elasticity of attention according to income and (ii) complete stability in the dispersion of attention across sites and in the intensity of attention within sites. We note that these findings may be more consistent with a standard model of optimal attention, appended with time slots and constrained minima, compared to a model without such constraints. We conclude that increasingly valuable offerings change where households go online, but not their general online attention patterns. This conclusion has important implications for competition and welfare in other markets for attention.

Keywords: Attention, Time, Online, Website, Competition, Internet, e-commerce

JEL Classification: L86, L10, D10

Suggested Citation

Boik, Andre and Greenstein, Shane M. and Greenstein, Shane M. and Prince, Jeffrey, The Empirical Economics of Online Attention (June 2017). Kelley School of Business Research Paper No. 16-57, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2807046 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2807046

Andre Boik

University of California, Davis - Department of Economics ( email )

One Shields Drive
Davis, CA 95616-8578
United States

Shane M. Greenstein

Harvard University - Technology & Operations Management Unit ( email )

Boston, MA 02163
United States

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Jeffrey Prince (Contact Author)

Kelley School of Business, Indiana University ( email )

1309 E. Tenth Street
Kelley School of Business
Bloomington, IN 47405
United States
8128562692 (Phone)
47405 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://https://kelley.iu.edu/jeffprin/

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