Affiliations:
Universität Wien
ZEW Mannheim

Old affiliations:
Universität Mannheim
CRC TR 224 - EPoS
MaCCI

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Research

• Platform-Enabled Information Disclosure - with Martin Peitz
International Journal of Industrial Organization 99, 103143 (2025) - Video presentation

Abstract: We analyze consumers’ voluntary information disclosure in a platform setting. For given consumer participation, the platform and sellers tend to prefer limited disclosure of consumer valuations, in contrast to consumers. With endogenous consumer participation, seller and platform incentives may be misaligned, and sellers may be better off when consumers can disclose their valuations. A regulator acting in the best interest of consumers and/or sellers may want to intervene and force the platform to employ a disclosure technology that enables consumers to voluntarily disclose information from a richer message space.

• Effective Regulation and Firm Compliance: The Case of German Privacy Policies - with Bernhard Ganglmair, Julia Krämer - NBER

Part of: Data Privacy Protection and the Conduct of Applied Research: Methods, Approaches and their Consequences, edited by Ruobin Gong, V. Joseph Hotz, and Ian M. Schmutte - University of Chicago Press, forthcoming

• Search on a Grid: Directed Consumer Search with Correlated Products - SSRN

  Abstract: I study a model of directed search with infinitely many products whose valuations are correlated through shared attributes. I propose a history-dependent scoring system based on nests of products inside which optimal search is unaffected by the correlation between products. These nests can be represented by the value of searching optimally inside of them, and scored accordingly. The resulting scoring system generates an optimal search policy that instructs the consumer to inspect unrelated products until an attribute, the realization of which exceeds the added informational value of inspecting two new attributes, is found. The search paths emerging from this policy match recent evidence of consumer learning through search and can rationalize backtracking to a previously abandoned attribute.

• Consumer Search and Firm Strategy with Multi-Attribute Products - SSRN

Abstract: A multiproduct firm sells a product to a consumer who has to pay a search cost to learn the product’s value. Products can share attributes, making their value correlated. I study which products the firm wants to show to the consumer and at what price. The firm may want to offer or deny different products depending on the intensity of the search frictions, and would price the same products differently depending on the overall menu composition. When products that share attributes are offered, they can be priced above their expected value. Depending on the menu composition, the intensity of search costs, and the prices, the consumer would follow different search paths. In some cases, the firm wants to price products differently to guide consumers in their search efforts. In other cases, the firm wants to restrict the menu to offer fewer options and price all products equally.

• Not as Good as it Used to be: Do Streaming Platforms Penalize Quality? - with Luca Sandrini - SSRN

Abstract: In this study, we analyze the incentives of a streaming platform to bias consumption when products are vertically differentiated. The platform offers mixed bundles of content to monetize consumer interest in variety and pays royalties to sellers based on the effective consumption of the generated content. When products are not vertically differentiated, the platform has no incentive to bias consumption in equilibrium. With vertical differentiation, royalties can differ, and the platform biases recommendations in favor of the cheapest content, hurting consumers and high-quality sellers. Crucially, biased recommendations distort investment incentives to the point that, if unconstrained, sellers’ incentives to increase the quality of their content are neutralized.

• "Dance to my Tune!" Discovery Mode and Built-In Recommendation Bias - with Luca Sandrini - SSRN

Abstract: We examine the strategic considerations and effects of product placement services in digital content aggregators, focusing in particular on Spotify's ``Discovery Mode''. Discovery Mode introduces bias in users' consumption bundle that content providers pay through discounted royalties and triggers users to actively adjust to it in response. The platform's ability to manipulate consumption bundles leads to promotion of the cheapest content available and degradation of users' effective consumption bundles. In a market where bias would not occur without the product placement service, its introduction benefits the lowest-cost content provider; In a market where bias could emerge organically, instead, it allows larger competitors to threaten a reversal of preexisting consumption biases in their favor. If consumer utility is negatively impacted by bias, the use of such services leads to a loss of market efficiency. Moreover, Discovery Mode exacerbates a platform's capacity to influence consumption, indirectly heightening the risk of market concentration.

• Regulatory Compliance with Limited Enforceability: Evidence from Privacy Policies - with Bernhard Ganglmair, Julia Krämer - SSRN

Abstract: The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of 2018 introduced stringent transparency rules compelling firms to disclose, in accessible language, details of their data collection, processing, and use. The specifics of the disclosure requirement are objective, and its compliance is easily verifiable; readability, however, is subjective and difficult to enforce. We use a simple inspection model to show how this asymmetric enforceability of regulatory rules and the corresponding firm compliance are linked. We then examine this link empirically using a large sample of privacy policies from German firms. We use text-as-data techniques to construct measures of disclosure and readability and show that firms increased the disclosure volume, but the readability of their privacy policies did not improve. Larger firms in concentrated industries demonstrated a stronger response in readability compliance, potentially due to heightened regulatory scrutiny. Moreover, data protection authorities with larger budgets induce better readability compliance without effects on disclosure.

• Regulatory Capacity in a Game of Asymmetric Regulation - with Bernhard Ganglmair, Julia Krämer - SSRN

Abstract: In a model of asymmetric regulation, a firm can comply with two regulatory targets, and a regulator can audit the firm for compliance. Inspection by the regulator is imperfect, and it assesses the firm's compliance with the targets with different success probabilities. The firm fully complies only if compliance costs are low. Otherwise, the firm always prioritizes the requirement that is easier to enforce. Expanding regulatory capacity positively affects compliance with the easy-to-enforce target; however, a higher capacity can harm compliance with the hard-to-enforce target.

• Where do Platforms go Hybrid? - with Maarten Janssen
• Based on the Papers you Liked: Designing a Rating System for Strategic Users - with Miguel Risco
• User-Data Collection and Strategic Tracking Disclosure - with Bernhard Ganglmair

Other

• Digital Economics - Micro (MA), 2024/2025 - Lecturer, Universität Wien
• Economia dei Mercati Digitali, 2023/2024 - Teaching Assistant for Prof. Fabio Manenti, Università di Padova
• Mikroökonomik A, 2021/2022 - Teaching Assistant for Prof. Thomas Tröger, Universität Mannheim
• Mikroökonomik A, 2019/2020 - Teaching Assistant for Prof. Thomas Tröger, Universität Mannheim

• MaCCI Annual Conference 2024 - Scientific Contact
• MaCCI Annual Conference 2023 - Scientific Contact
• MaCCI Annual Conference 2022 - Scientific Contact
• MaCCI Annual Conference 2021 - Scientific Contact

• CCE - Andrea Lofaro Prize for the Best Papers on Industrial Organization Written by Young Researchers (2024) for Consumer Search and Firm Strategy with Multi-Attribute Products
• Jornadas de Economia Industrial - Young Economist Award (2023) for Consumer Search and Firm Strategy with Multi-Attribute Products
• CRESSE - CPI Best Paper Award for Young Researchers (2023) for Consumer Search and Firm Strategy with Multi-Attribute Products (was: Multi-Attribute Search)