Events at CERGE-EI

We would like to invite you to a Brown Bag Seminar with Tereza Burýšková, a PhD student at CERGE-EI, on Thursday, February 5, at 10:00 a.m. The talk is titled “The Optimal Price of Attention.” The presentation will take place in Room 402, and you can also attend online via the link below.

Presenter: Tereza Buryskova (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Title: "The Optimal Price of Attention (at online platforms)"

Abstract: Digital retail platforms act as information gatekeepers, shaping market outcomes by controlling both pricing mechanisms and the flow of information. This paper develops a theoretical model of a platform that simultaneously optimizes two revenue streams: a per-purchase transaction fee and the monetization of user attention. I model buyers as rationally inattentive agents who strategically allocate limited cognitive resources to learn about product quality. The platform faces a fundamental trade-off: increasing the cost of information (attention price) via advertising load can boost immediate revenue and prevent buyers from rejecting low-quality items, but it may also "obfuscate" the market, deterring search and reducing transaction fee income. The preliminary analysis supports the existence of a non-trivial profit-maximizing equilibrium. I aim to generalize this setting into other business types - e-shops, media, etc., and describe the equilibrium and formulate corresponding welfare implications.

Meeting link: https://cerge-ei.webex.com/cerge-ei/j.php?MTID=m3f66906284b950c64f6ff84be381b5a9

Meeting number: 2742 502 7207

Meeting password: 383695