竞价排名对搜索引擎公正性和效率的影响

Search engines, referrals services, advisors, and other forms of information gatekeepers and recommenders, are omnipresent in today's information-heavy economy. These services widely employ sponsored recommendations, wherein merchants pay the recommender in return for favorable placement in recommender's list. While sponsored search becomes one of the most important revenue sources for such search engines, it is not clear how it influences consumer’s search experience and purchase decision; and how it affect firms’ pricing strategy and consumer welfare. We develop an economic model of sponsored search on recommenders, in a setting where consumers cannot a priori discern low and high quality merchants or recall all the relevant merchants. Our model extends traditional advertising literature by incorporating an intelligent recommender who aims to advise and influence consumers, while also serving as an advertising platform for merchants. Sponsored search in our model, as a way of advertising, can serve either as a way to signal firm quality or to raise awareness among consumers. A high-quality recommender not only makes consumers better-informed, but may also cause merchants to modify their price-advertising strategies and consumers may be worse off if they need to pay a higher price. We explore the following questions: (1) under what conditions does sponsored search serve as a quality signaling tool and under what conditions does sponsored search serve as a tool to raise awareness; (2) how does firm adjust its price-advertising strategy depending on consumers’ prior information? (3) when the search technology becomes more accurate at discerning firms' quality, how does the role of sponsored search change? (4) As a result, do consumers better off with the existence of sponsored search? Do consumers better off with more accurate information? We also collect empirical data to verify our hypothesis and findings. ..

当今信息经济中搜索引擎日益发挥着重要作用。近年来，竞价排名也随之得到广泛使用，成为搜索引擎最重要的收入来源之一。竞价排名是如何影响消费者的搜索和购买决策，以及企业定价策略？它对搜索引擎的效率和公平性带来怎样的影响？消费者是否从中获益？本课题致力于在经济和社会两个层面探索竞价排名对上述问题的影响。在消费者无法通过先验识别产品质量的高低或了解所有相关产品的时候，竞价排名作为一种广告方式，既可以作为企业传递质量的信号，也可以扩大产品知名度。但同时也可能阻碍消费者对没有实力竞价排名的企业的认知。本课题将探讨：（1）竞价排名在什么条件下可为厂家传递质量信号或提高厂家知名度？（2）企业如何根据消费者的已知信息，调整其价格和广告策略？（3）在搜索技术变得更准确的条件下，厂家将如何调整其竞价排名策略？（4）消费者在掌握更准确信息的条件下，是否总会获益？本研究收集的实证数据将验证本课题的假设和结果。

当今信息经济中搜索引擎日益发挥着重要作用。近年来，竞价排名也随之得到广泛使用，成为搜索引擎最重要的收入来源之一。竞价排名是如何影响消费者的搜索和购买决策，以及企业定价策略？它对搜索引擎的效率和公平性带来怎样的影响？消费者是否从中获益？本课题致力于在经济和社会两个层面探索竞价排名对上述问题的影响。本课题计划探讨：（1）竞价排名在什么条件下可为厂家传递质量信号或提高厂家知名度？（2）企业如何根据消费者的已知信息，调整其价格和广告策略？（3）在搜索技术变得更准确的条件下，厂家将如何调整其竞价排名策略？（4）消费者在掌握更准确信息的条件下，是否总会获益？本研究收集的实证数据将验证本课题的假设和结果。..经过三年的努力，本项目较好的完成了研究目标。对以上问题的研究和解答，目前已经发表SCI论文一篇，参加国际会议论文两篇。除了学术会议及论文，研究成果也得到了工业界认可。