Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • 2016
  • Working Paper

The Empirical Economics of Online Attention

By: Andre Boik, Shane Greenstein and Jeffrey Prince
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
ShareBar

Abstract

In several markets, firms compete not for consumer expenditure but instead for consumer attention. We model and characterize how households allocate their scarce attention in arguably the largest market for attention: the Internet. Our characterization of household attention allocation operates along three dimensions: how much attention is allocated, where that attention is allocated, and how that attention is allocated. Using click-stream data for thousands of U.S. households, we assess if and how attention allocation on each dimension changed between 2008 and 2013, a time of large increases in online offerings. We identify vast and expected changes in where households allocate their attention (away from chat and news towards video and social media), and yet we simultaneously identify remarkable stability in how much attention is allocated and how it is allocated. Specifically, we identify (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. We illustrate how this finding is difficult to reconcile with standard models of optimal attention allocation and suggest alternatives that may be more suitable. We conclude that increasingly valuable offerings change where households go online, but not their general online attention patterns. This conclusion has important implications for competition and welfare in other markets for attention.

Keywords

Internet and the Web; Competition; Behavior; Resource Allocation; Household; Cognition and Thinking

Citation

Boik, Andre, Shane Greenstein, and Jeffrey Prince. "The Empirical Economics of Online Attention." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 22427, July 2016.
  • Find it at Harvard
  • Register to Read

About The Author

Shane M. Greenstein

Technology and Operations Management
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • November 2022 (Revised January 2023)
    • Faculty Research

    Hugging Face: Serving AI on a Platform

    By: Shane Greenstein, Daniel Yue, Kerry Herman and Sarah Gulick
    • September 6, 2022
    • Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics

    Creating a Platform for Costless Personalization in Clothing

    By: Shane Greenstein
    • August 2022
    • AEI Digital Platforms and American Life Project

    The U.S. Approach to Antitrust Policy in Technology Markets

    By: Shane Greenstein
More from the Authors
  • Hugging Face: Serving AI on a Platform By: Shane Greenstein, Daniel Yue, Kerry Herman and Sarah Gulick
  • Creating a Platform for Costless Personalization in Clothing By: Shane Greenstein
  • The U.S. Approach to Antitrust Policy in Technology Markets By: Shane Greenstein
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College