A Macroeconomic Analysis of Digital Advertising

摘要在线广告约占今天所有广告支出的四分之一。数字广告为消费者提供了两个好处。首先，公司向消费者提供免费的媒体产品，例如技术公司提供的大量各种应用程序。其次，数字广告刺激价格竞争。本研究项目的目标是量化这些免费产品的价值以及消费者的价格竞争，并计算福利收益。这项研究纳入了劳动技能和消费者收入水平的差异。该项目对于理解数字广告在不同社会经济背景的消费者的经济中的作用具有广泛的政策含义。该项目探讨了数字广告如何影响宏观经济总量。该项目建立在广告模式的变体上。该模式允许传统和数字广告，提供免费的媒体产品，以及消费者之间的收入差异。该项目结合了数字商品和休闲之间的互补性，并区分了熟练劳动力和非熟练劳动力。开发的模型将被校准和模拟，以匹配美国经济的程式化事实。将计算数字广告产生的福利收益。这些福利收益将被分解为免费媒体产品的收益和价格竞争加剧的收益。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

AbstractOnline advertising accounts for about a quarter of all advertising spending today. Digital advertising provides two benefits for consumers. First, companies provide free media goods to consumers such as a large number and variety of applications provided by technology firms. Second, digital advertising stimulates price competition. The goal of this research project is to quantify the value of these free products together with the increased price competition for consumers, and compute welfare gains. The research incorporates differences in labor skill and consumer income levels. The project has broad policy implications for understanding the role of digital advertising in the economy for consumers with different socioeconomic backgrounds.The project explores how digital advertising affects macroeconomic aggregates. The project builds on a variant of advertising model. The model allows for both traditional and digital advertising, the provision of free media goods, and differences in incomes across consumers. The project incorporates the complementarity between digital goods and leisure and distinguishes between skilled and unskilled labor. The developed model will be calibrated and simulated to match stylized facts for the U.S. economy. The welfare gain arising from digital advertising will be computed. These welfare gains will be broken down into the gain from free media goods and the gain from increased price competition. Different income groups will be considered in this assessment.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.