A game-theoretic analysis of rank-order mechanisms for user-generated content

Arpita Ghosh and Patrick Hummel

Journal of Economic Theory, 2014, vol. 154, issue C, 349-374

Abstract: We investigate the widely-used rank-order mechanism for displaying user-generated content, where contributions are displayed on a webpage in decreasing order of their ratings, in a game-theoretic model where strategic contributors benefit from attention and have a cost to quality. We show that the lowest quality elicited by this rank-order mechanism in any mixed-strategy equilibrium becomes optimal as the available attention diverges. Additionally, these equilibrium qualities are higher, with probability tending to 1 in the limit of diverging attention, than those elicited by a more equitable proportional mechanism which distributes attention in proportion to the positive ratings a contribution receives, but the proportional mechanism elicits a greater number of contributions than the rank-order mechanism.

Keywords: Attention economics; Game theory; Rank-order mechanisms; User-generated content (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C72 D80 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jetheo:v:154:y:2014:i:c:p:349-374

DOI: 10.1016/j.jet.2014.09.009

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