An Experimental Infrastructure to Investigate the Impact of Online Tracking, Targeting, and Advertising on Consumer Behavior and Consumer Welfare

Cristobal Cheyre (), Li Jiang (), Florian Schaub (), Zijun Ding (), Cristiana Firullo (), Yucheng Li () and Alessandro Acquisti
Additional contact information
Cristobal Cheyre: Cornell University
Li Jiang: George Washington University
Florian Schaub: University of Michigan
Zijun Ding: Carnegie Mellon University
Cristiana Firullo: Cornell University
Yucheng Li: Carnegie Mellon University

No 24-10, Working Papers from NET Institute

Abstract: We present the design of a field experiment on the impact of tracking, targeting, ad-blocking, and anti-tracking technologies on consumers’ behavior and economic outcomes. The online data industry has often heralded the benefits of online tracking and targeting, particularly in the context of online advertising. Its claims are juxtaposed by the privacy concerns associated with the vast number of ad-tech companies tracking and analyzing consumers’ online behavior – often without consumers’ awareness. We use a field experiment to analyze the impact of online tracking and targeting as well as ad-blocking and anti-tracking technologies, focusing on consumers’ online behaviors (such as browsing and shopping), and their ultimate purchasing outcomes (as measured by amounts of money spent online, product prices paid, time spent on product searching, and purchase satisfaction). In this draft, we describe the rationale and motivations behind the study; the experimental design and the instrumentation infrastructure developed for the experiments; and the plans for data collection.

Keywords: economics of digitization; economics of privacy; online experiments; online advertising; behavioral advertising (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D01 M37 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 20 pages
Date: 2024-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-pay and nep-reg
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