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Attention Oligopoly

Author

Listed:
  • Andrea Prat
  • Tommaso Valletti

Abstract

We model digital platforms as attention brokers that have proprietary information about their users' product preferences and sell targeted ad space to retail product industries. Retail producers—incumbents or entrants—compete for access to this attention bottleneck. We discuss when increased concentration among attention brokers results in a tightening of the attention bottleneck, leading to higher ad prices, fewer ads being sold to entrants, and lower consumer welfare in the product industries. The welfare effect is characterized in terms of patterns of individual usage across platforms. A merger assessment that relies on aggregate platform usage alone can be highly biased.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrea Prat & Tommaso Valletti, 2022. "Attention Oligopoly," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 530-557, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejmic:v:14:y:2022:i:3:p:530-57
    DOI: 10.1257/mic.20200134
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Yiquan Gu & Leonardo Madio & Carlo Reggiani, 2022. "Data brokers co-opetition [The impact of big data on firm performance: an empirical investigation]," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 74(3), pages 820-839.
    2. Motta, Massimo & Peitz, Martin, 2021. "Big tech mergers," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    3. Argentesi, Elena & Buccirossi, Paolo & Calvano, Emilio & Duso, Tomaso & Marrazzo, Alessia & Nava, Salvatore, 2021. "Merger Policy in Digital Markets: An Ex Post Assessment," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 17(1), pages 95-140.
    4. Emmanuel LORENZON, 2020. "Uninformed Bidding in Sequential Auctions," Bordeaux Economics Working Papers 2020-20, Bordeaux School of Economics (BSE).
    5. Raúl Bajo-Buenestado & Markus Kinateder & Raul Bajo-Buenestado, 2023. "Prices and Mergers in a General Model of Multi-Sided Markets," CESifo Working Paper Series 10818, CESifo.
    6. Jean-Marc Zogheib & Marc Bourreau, 2021. "Privacy, Competition, and Multi-Homing," EconomiX Working Papers 2021-15, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    7. Martin Peitz & Anton Sobolev & Paul Wegener, 2023. "Ad Blocking, Whitelisting, and Advertiser Competition," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2023_448, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    8. Axel Gautier & Joe Lamesch, 2020. "Mergers in the Digital Economy," CESifo Working Paper Series 8056, CESifo.
    9. Anderson, Simon & Baik, Alicia & Larson, Nathan, 2019. "Price Discrimination in the Information Age: Prices, Poaching, and Privacy with Personalized Targeted Discounts," CEPR Discussion Papers 13793, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Carlo Reggiani & Alejandro Saporiti & Lois Simanjuntak, 2018. "Social Information and Consumer Heterogeneity," Economics Discussion Paper Series 1813, Economics, The University of Manchester.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • L81 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Retail and Wholesale Trade; e-Commerce
    • L86 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Information and Internet Services; Computer Software
    • M37 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Advertising

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