The Economics of Attention: Maximizing User Value in Information Rich Environments

Abstract

We introduce an automatic configuration mechanism that generates the most relevant information to be presented to limited attention users of information-rich media. It also guarantees to maximize their total expected utility from the information they receive. A computationally efficient algorithm is used to assign an index value to each information item, which then determines whether or not a given item appears in the top list presented to users at a given time.

Keywords: attention economics, information technology

JEL Classification: C44, C61