A Model of Search with Two Stages of Information Acquisition and Additive Learning

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Gibbard, Peter
• 署名单位: University of Otago
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2021.4150
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 1212-1217
• 关键词: decision analysis; Sequential; dynamic programming; ECONOMICS; microeconomic behavior

摘要

This paper presents a model of choice with two stages of information acquisition. In this model, the choice problem can be interpreted as a variant of a more general multiarmed bandit problem. We assume that information acquisition takes a simple additive form-the value of an alternative is the sumof two components, which the decision maker can learn by undertaking two stages of information acquisition. This assumption yields a model that is tractable for the purposes of structural estimation. One possible application of the model is to online purchasing on e-commerce sites. For a consumer on an e-commerce website, there are potentially two stages of information acquisition: the consumer can obtain information about an alternative from (i) browsing the search results page and (ii) clicking on the alternative. By way of contrast, in much of the literature on structural econometric models of online purchasing, there is typically only one stage of information acquisition. Our papermay, therefore, provide amore realistic theory formodeling search, at least for those types of search-such as online purchasing-that involve two stages of information acquisition.