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Contribution Details

Type Working Paper
Scope Discipline-based scholarship
Title A welfare analysis of "junk" information and spam filters
Organization Unit
Authors
  • Josef Falkinger
Language
  • English
Institution University of Zurich
Series Name Working paper series / Socioeconomic Institute
Number No. 811
Date 2008
Abstract Text This paper analyses the equilibrium effects of individual information filters. Information is modelled as advertisements which are distributed across a population of consumers with heterogeneous preferences. An advertisement that provides knowledge about a product with little or no utility for a consumer is considered junk. Filters are characterised by their level of tolerance. The quality of the filter is measured in terms of the share of useful items in the total set of items passing the filter. It is shown that in conditions of decentralised competition, multiple equilibria arise. A social optimum can be achieved by demanding each consumer to reject a certain percentage of advertisements, leaving the choice of what is rejected up to the consumer him/herself.
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