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The Economics of Social Data

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Abstract

A data intermediary pays consumers for information about their preferences and sells the information so acquired to firms that use it to tailor their products and prices. The social dimension of the individual data - whereby an individual's data are predictive of the behavior of others - generates a data externality that reduces the intermediary's cost of acquiring information. We derive the intermediary's optimal data policy and show that it preserves the privacy of the consumers' identities while providing precise information about market demand to the firms. This enables the intermediary to capture the entire value of information as the number of consumers grows large.

Suggested Citation

  • Dirk Bergemann & Alessandro Bonatti & Tan Gan, 2019. "The Economics of Social Data," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2203R2, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University, revised Jul 2020.
    • Handle: RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:2203r2
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Social data; Personal information; Consumer privacy; Privacy paradox; Data intermediaries; Data externality; Data flow; Data policy; Data rights;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D44 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Auctions
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness

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