IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ess/wpaper/id11100.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Empirical Economics of Online Attention

Author

Listed:
  • Andre Boik
  • Shane Greenstein
  • Jeffrey Prince

Abstract

This paper models and characterizes how households allocate their scarce attention in arguably the largest market for attention: the Internet. It identifies vast and expected changes in those households that allocate their attention (away from chat and news towards video and social media), and yet simultaneously identifies remarkable stability in how much attention is allocated and how it is allocated. Specifically, it identifies (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. [Working Paper 22427]

Suggested Citation

  • Andre Boik & Shane Greenstein & Jeffrey Prince, 2016. "The Empirical Economics of Online Attention," Working Papers id:11100, eSocialSciences.
    • Handle: RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:11100
    Note: Institutional Papers
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.esocialsciences.org/Articles/show_Article.aspx?acat=InstitutionalPapers&aid=11100
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lanham, Richard A., 2006. "The Economics of Attention," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226468822, January.
    2. Xavier Gabaix, 2014. "A Sparsity-Based Model of Bounded Rationality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(4), pages 1661-1710.
    3. Lesley Chiou & Catherine Tucker, 2017. "Content aggregation by platforms: The case of the news media," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 782-805, December.
    4. Austan Goolsbee & Peter J. Klenow, 2006. "Valuing Consumer Products by the Time Spent Using Them: An Application to the Internet," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(2), pages 108-113, May.
    5. Baye, Michael R. & De los Santos, Babur & Wildenbeest, Matthijs R., 2016. "What’s in a name? Measuring prominence and its impact on organic traffic from search engines," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 44-57.
    6. Goldfarb, Avi & Prince, Jeff, 2008. "Internet adoption and usage patterns are different: Implications for the digital divide," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 2-15, March.
    7. Aviv Nevo & John L. Turner & Jonathan W. Williams, 2016. "Usage‐Based Pricing and Demand for Residential Broadband," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 84, pages 411-443, March.
    8. Scott Wallsten, 2013. "What Are We Not Doing When We're Online," NBER Working Papers 19549, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Hitt, Lorin & Tambe, Prasanna, 2007. "Broadband adoption and content consumption," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 19(3-4), pages 362-378, October.
    10. Rosston Gregory L. & Savage Scott J & Waldman Donald M, 2010. "Household Demand for Broadband Internet in 2010," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-45, September.
    11. Susan Athey & Emilio Calvano & Joshua Gans, 2013. "The Impact of the Internet on Advertising Markets for News Media," NBER Working Papers 19419, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Savage, Scott James & Waldman, Donald M., 2009. "Ability, location and household demand for Internet bandwidth," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 166-174, March.
    13. Peitz, Martin & Waldfogel, Joel, 2012. "The Oxford Handbook of the Digital Economy," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195397840.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Han Yuan, 2020. "Competing for Time: A Study of Mobile Applications," 2020 Papers pyu309, Job Market Papers.
    2. Martin Peitz, 2024. "Digital Attention Intermediaries," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2024_520, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    3. Jeon, Doh-Shin, 2018. "Economics of News Aggregators," TSE Working Papers 18-912, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    4. Cali Curley & Galib Rustamov & Nicky Harrison & Madeline Venable, 2020. "Susceptibility to Inattention: Unpacking Who is Susceptible to Inattention in Energy‐Based Electronic Billing," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 37(6), pages 744-764, November.
    5. Luis Aguiar Wicht, 2019. "Going Mobile: The Effects of Smartphone Usage on Internet Consumption," JRC Working Papers on Digital Economy 2019-07, Joint Research Centre.
    6. Oliver Budzinski & Sophia Gaenssle & Nadine Lindstädt-Dreusicke, 2021. "The battle of YouTube, TV and Netflix: an empirical analysis of competition in audiovisual media markets," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(9), pages 1-26, September.
    7. Du, Kai & Song, Jinyuan, 2022. "The impact of geotargeting on household information acquisition: Evidence from a Google News redesign," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(10).
    8. Peitz, Martin, 2020. "Economic policy for digital attention intermediaries," ZEW Discussion Papers 20-035, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    9. Hildebrandt, Christian & Arnold, René, 2018. "Marktbeobachtung in der digitalen Wirtschaft – Ein Modell zur Analyse von Online-Plattformen," WIK Discussion Papers 427, WIK Wissenschaftliches Institut für Infrastruktur und Kommunikationsdienste GmbH.
    10. Charles Hodgson & Gregory Lewis, 2020. "You Can Lead a Horse to Water: Spatial Learning and Path Dependence in Consumer Search," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2246, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    11. Tim Meyer & Anna Kerkhof & Carmelo Cennamo & Tobias Kretschmer, 2022. "Competing for Attention on Information Platforms: The Case of News," CESifo Working Paper Series 9832, CESifo.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Boik, Andre & Greenstein, Shane & Prince, Jeffrey, 2019. "The persistence of broadband user behavior: Implications for universal service and competition policy," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(8), pages 1-1.
    2. Shane Greenstein, 2020. "Digital Infrastructure," NBER Chapters, in: Economic Analysis and Infrastructure Investment, pages 409-447, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Liu, Yu-Hsin & Prince, Jeffrey & Wallsten, Scott, 2018. "Distinguishing bandwidth and latency in households’ willingness-to-pay for broadband internet speed," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 1-15.
    4. Julian Hidalgo & Michelle Sovinsky, 2023. "Internet (Power) to the People: How to Bridge the Digital Divide," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2023_461, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    5. Sadowski, Bert M., 2017. "Advanced users and the adoption of high speed broadband: Results of a living lab study in the Netherlands," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 1-14.
    6. Gabriel Ahlfeldt & Pantelis Koutroumpis & Tommaso Valletti, 2017. "Speed 2.0: Evaluating Access to Universal Digital Highways," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 15(3), pages 586-625.
    7. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/3tcpvf3sd399op9sgtn8tq5bhd is not listed on IDEAS
    8. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/3tcpvf3sd399op9sgtn8tq5bhd is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Julia Cage & Nicolas Hervé & Marie-Luce Viaud, 2017. "The Production of Information in an Online World: Is Copy Right?," Working Papers hal-03393171, HAL.
    10. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/3tcpvf3sd399op9sgtn8tq5bhd is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Srinuan, Chalita & Bohlin, Erik, 2011. "Understanding the digital divide: A literature survey and ways forward," 22nd European Regional ITS Conference, Budapest 2011: Innovative ICT Applications - Emerging Regulatory, Economic and Policy Issues 52191, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    12. Kim, Yongwon & Kim, Yongkyu, 2020. "The Value of Wi-Fi as Entertainment: An Application to Free Wi-Fi in City Buses of Korea," ITS Conference, Online Event 2020 224863, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    13. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/3tcpvf3sd399op9sgtn8tq5bhd is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Rosston Gregory L. & Savage Scott J & Waldman Donald M, 2010. "Household Demand for Broadband Internet in 2010," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-45, September.
    15. Smaranda Pantea & Bertin Martens, 2014. "The Value of the Internet for Consumers," JRC Working Papers on Digital Economy 2014-08, Joint Research Centre.
    16. Boik, Andre, 2017. "The economics of universal service: An analysis of entry subsidies for high speed broadband," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 13-20.
    17. Jian Pei, 2020. "A Survey on Data Pricing: from Economics to Data Science," Papers 2009.04462, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2020.
    18. David S. Evans, 2019. "Attention Platforms, the Value of Content, and Public Policy," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 54(4), pages 775-792, June.
    19. Julia Cage & Nicolas Hervé & Marie-Luce Viaud, 2017. "The Production of Information in an Online World: Is Copy Right?," Working Papers hal-03393171, HAL.
    20. Lüdering, Jochen, 2014. "The measurement of internet availability and quality in the context of the discussion on digital divide," Discussion Papers 65, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Center for international Development and Environmental Research (ZEU).
    21. Mathilde Aubouin, 2023. "Determinants of the Digital Divide: Evidence from France," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 151, pages 37-80.
    22. Aviv Nevo & John L. Turner & Jonathan W. Williams, 2016. "Usage‐Based Pricing and Demand for Residential Broadband," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 84, pages 411-443, March.
    23. Alaoui, Larbi & Germano, Fabrizio, 2020. "Time scarcity and the market for news," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 173-195.
    24. Stephen McDonald & Colin Wren, 2017. "Consumer Search Ability, Price Dispersion and the Digital Divide," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 79(2), pages 234-250, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    consumer expenditure; Internet; empirical economics; online attention;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • L81 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Retail and Wholesale Trade; e-Commerce
    • L86 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Information and Internet Services; Computer Software

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:11100. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Padma Prakash (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.esocialsciences.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.