Collaborative Research: The economics of social data

该奖项用于经济理论方面的研究。大型互联网平台的崛起导致了前所未有的数据收集和使用。这些平台产生了关于个人消费者、他们的偏好、他们的位置、他们的朋友、他们的政治观点以及他们生活的几乎所有其他方面的海量数据。个人级别数据的可用性使公司能够提供精细化的搜索结果、个性化的产品推荐、信息性评级、及时的流量数据和定向广告。由此产生的数据市场引入了一套全新的经济关系。从个人收集的数据的一个主要特征是它的社会方面。也就是说，从个人用户捕获的数据不仅关于该特定个人的信息，而且关于与她相似的用户的信息。因此，个人数据实际上是社交数据。数据的社会性产生了信息外部性。也就是说，提供关于自己的信息的个人会影响其他人可用的市场选择。这个项目将让我们对数据市场如何影响经济结果有新的见解。该团队将推进专注于数据市场的研究议程。第一步是为我们理解信息市场如何运作奠定理论基础。这项研究集中在信息收集的社会方面，这导致了一种新的理解为“数据外部性”，它可以与各种市场失灵联系在一起。这项研究试图理解为什么互联网数据平台往往成为大型主导公司，以及这如何影响消费者、广告商和出版商的福利。下一步是分析大型互联网平台是否以及如何通过各种签约和商业做法来维持并可能扩大其市场力量，以及反垄断执法和监管政策可能会如何应对。该团队将调查这类数据和信息市场中可能的行业均衡和竞争结构，以及任何可能的监管干预。更具体地说，他们将就这类社会数据的收集如何影响内容提供商(例如，在线、印刷、广播和电视媒体)的经济问题得出新的结果。最后，数字广告市场目前的签约做法如何加强或减弱数据外部性，以及由此产生的社会结果？在社会数据产生的外部性存在的情况下，这些问题变得更加重要。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award funds research in economic theory. The rise of large Internet platforms is leading to an unprecedented collection and use of data. The platforms generate massive amounts of data about individual consumers, their preferences, their locations, their friends, their political views, and almost all other facets of their lives. The availability of individual-level data allows companies to offer refined search results, personalized product recommendations, informative ratings, timely traffic data, and targeted advertisements. The resulting markets for data introduce a fundamentally new set of economic relationships. A central feature of the data collected from individuals is its social aspect. Namely, the data captured from an individual user is not only informative about that specific individual, but also about users similar to her. Thus, individual data is really social data. The social nature of the data generates an informational externality. That is, an individual providing information about herself affects the marketplace options available to others. This project will give us new insights into how data markets affect economic outcomes. The team will pursue a research agenda focused on data markets. The first step is to establish the theoretical foundations of our understanding of how information markets work. This research focuses on the social aspect of information collection, which leads to a newly understood "data externality" that can be associated with various market failures. This research seeks to understand why internet data platforms tend to become large dominant firms, and how this affects the welfare of consumers, advertisers, and publishers. The next step is to analyze whether and how large internet platforms can maintain and possibly extend their market power through various contracting and commercial practices, and how both antitrust enforcement and regulatory policy might respond. The team will investigate the likely industry equilibrium and competitive structure in such markets for data and information, and any possible regulatory interventions. More specifically they will develop new results on how the gathering of this kind social data impacts the economics of content providers (e.g., online, print, radio and television media). Finally, how do the current contracting practices in the digital advertising markets accentuate or attenuate the data externalities, and the resulting social outcomes? These questions gain importance in the presence of the externality generated by the social data.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.