经济学院双周论坛第 64 期

【讲座信息】

主讲人：袁哲 浙江大学经济学院

主持人：吴鹏 浙江财经大学经济学院

时间：2024年11月14日（周四）14:00 - 15:30（下午）

地点：

线下：经济学院210会议室

讲座主题：

Platform Information Provision and Consumer

Search: A Field Experiment

【Abstract】Despite substantial efforts to help consumers search in more intuitive ways, text search remains the predominant tool for product discovery online. In this paper, we explore the effects of visual and textual cues for search refinement on consumer search and purchasing behavior. We collaborate with one of the largest e-commerce platforms in China and study its roll out of a new search tool. When a consumer searches for a general term (e.g., ``headphones''), the tool suggests refined queries (e.g., ``bluetooth headphones'' or ``noise-canceling headphones'') with the help of images and text. The search tool was rolled out with a long-run experiment, which allows us to measure its short-run and long-run effects. We find that, although there was no immediate effect on orders or spending, in the long-run the search tool changed consumers' search and purchasing behavior. In the six months following entry into the experiment, consumers with access to the new tool substantially increased orders and spending compared to those in the control group, especially for non top-selling products. The purchase increase comes from more effective searches, rather than an increase in activity on the platform. We also find that the effect is not only driven by the direct value of suggested searches, but also by consumers indirectly learning to conduct more specific searches on their own.

[主讲人简介] 袁哲博士，浙江大学经济学院百人计划研究员，博士生导师，哈佛大学、威斯康辛大学访问学者。同时在多个头部科技公司担任顾问，提供战略咨询和业务落地建议。袁哲的研究领域是算法与人工智能的经济影响、平台经济和产业经济。主要研究方向包括算法与人工智能在数字平台上的设计问题（推荐系统、搜索系统设计、大语言模型的影响），平台治理（平台机制设计与信息披露设计），数据要素（数据价值与数据隐私），以及网络经济（航空网络和电信网络）。他用实验和结构模型的方法来回答关于网络经济的问题，并且与大型平台公司合作推进经济分析和实验。他的论文发表于Rand Journal of Economics, American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, Management Science，Information Systems Research等国际顶级刊物。他主持国家青年自科项目，浙大文科青年交叉创新团队，参与多项国家自科重大和重大专项项目。他在多个国际顶级人工智能和平台相关的会议上宣讲，包括哈佛大学Workshop on the Future of AI and Economics，波士顿大学BU Platform Strategy Research Symposium，香港大学Digital Economy Conference，香港科技大学China Economics Summer Institute，并曾获得多个奖项，包括2023年留美经济学会“邹至庄最佳论文奖”，2016年欧洲产业经济学会青年经济学家论文奖等。