Seminar
Past
Impressing the Algorithm
Sandro Shelegia (University of Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona)
- Date3 September 2026
- Time 14h00 - 15h00
- Room Online
Abstract
We study how platform ranking design shapes sellers’ off-platform pricing when the platform learns product appeal from on-platform sales. Because those sales depend on cross-channel pricing, ranking creates a career-concerns force: by restraining offplatform discounts, the seller shifts demand on-platform and improves future exposure. Thus, even without conditioning directly on off-platform prices, a sales-based algorithm can reproduce the incentive effects of explicit price-parity restrictions. But because the platform also relies on on-platform sales to infer seller appeal, a sales-based algorithm may distort promotion decisions and reduce welfare. We compare sales-based algorithms with rules that condition directly on off-platform prices and show that a price-parityclause algorithm can attain the first best.
Related document(s)
Other seminars
Past
Decoding Rankings: Consumer Search, Price Competition, and Platform Regulation
-
Seminar
-
Economics of Platforms Seminar
-
Date 1 October 2026
-
Place Zoom
-
Speaker or organiser Hanlin Zhao
Details
Past
The Impact of Google AI Overviews on Publisher Traffic and User Experience: Evidence from a Field Experiment
-
Seminar
-
Economics of Platforms Seminar
-
Date 2 July 2026
-
Place Online
-
Speaker or organiser Saharsh Agarwal (Indian School of Business)
Details
Past
Algorithmic Attention and Content Creation on Social Media Platforms
-
Seminar
-
Economics of Platforms Seminar
-
Date 4 June 2026
-
Place Online, Zoom
-
Speaker or organiser Li Fei
Details