The economics of data externalities

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Ichihashi, Shota
• 署名单位: Bank of Canada
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0531
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jet.2021.105316
• 发表日期: 2021
• 关键词: externalities; Data markets; privacy; information design

摘要

A firm buys data from consumers to learn about some uncertain state of the world. There are data exter-nalities, whereby data of some consumers reveal information about other consumers' data. I characterize data externalities that maximize or minimize consumer surplus and the firm's profit. I use the result to solve an information design problem in which the firm chooses what information to buy from consumers, balanc-ing the value and price of information. The firm collects no less information than the efficient amount. In some cases we can solve the firm's data collection problem with a two-step concavification method. (c) 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.