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Algorithmic Attention Rents

Dominant digital platforms today act as gatekeepers of user attention. This gives gatekeepers enormous power over their ecosystems of suppliers, who are reliant on how the platform will allocate user attention for their visibility.Ìý

This research explores how a dominant platform allocates value algorithmically and how they might increase their share of value when they exploit patterns in user behaviour and their captive ecosystemsÌýof suppliers and/or advertisers. This might involve the gatekeeper disregarding user preferences when it allocates user attention, ignoring the information content of their supplier ecosystems, promoting paid information over optimally relevant organic information, or manipulating user attention through subtle changes in the decision-making context of the platform.

Research

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  • Ilan Strauss, Tim O’reilly, and Mariana Mazzucato,ÌýAmazon’s Algorithmic Rents: The economics of information on Amazon, 15 HastingsÌýSci. &ÌýTech. L.J. 203 (2024).ÌýAvailable at:Ìý
  • O’Reilly, Tim., Strauss, Ilan., and Mazzucato, Mariana. 2024.Ìý .ÌýData & Policy,Ìý02 February 2024, Volume 6, 2024, e6.
  • Strauss, I., O’Reilly, T. and Mazzucato, M. (2023). Amazon’s Algorithmic Rents: The economics of information on Amazon. ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, Working Paper Series (IIPP WP 2023-12)
  • Rock, R., Strauss, I., O’Reilly, T. and Mazzucato, M. (2023). Behind the Clicks: Can Amazon allocate user attention as it pleases? ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, Working Paper Series (IIPP WP 2023-10).
  • O’Reilly, T., Strauss, I. and Mazzucato, M. (2023). Algorithmic Attention Rents: A theory of digital platform market power. ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, Working Paper Series (IIPP WP 2023-10).
  • Mariana Mazzucato, Ilan Strauss, Tim O’Reilly, and Josh Ryan-Collins, 2023. , Oxford Review of Economic Policy.ÌýVolume 39, Issue 1, Spring 2023, Pages 47–69.
  • Mariana Mazzucato, Marietje Schaake,ÌýSeb Krier, Josh Entsminger, 2022.ÌýGoverning artificial intelligence in the public interest,Ìý¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, Working Paper Series (IIPP WP 2022/12)
  • Mariana Mazzucato, Josh Ryan-Collins, Giorgos and Gouzoulis, 2020.ÌýTheorising and Mapping Modern Economic Rents, ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº IIPP Working paper 2020/13Ìý

In the press

  • , inÌýProject Syndicate's Quarterly Issue Profit and Peril, Mariana Mazzucato and Fausto Gernone, 11 March 2024.
  • . Project Syndicate. Mariana Mazzucato and Ilan Strauss,ÌýFebruaryÌý2024.
  • . Financial Times. Interview with TimÌýO'Reilly, November 2023.
  • .ÌýPluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow. Working Paper review, November 2023.
  • . Rockefeller Foundation.ÌýTim O'Reilly,ÌýAugust, 2023.Ìý
  • .ÌýProject Syndicate.ÌýGabriela Ramos and Mariana Mazzucato, December 2022.
  • .ÌýProject Syndicate.ÌýMariana Mazzucato, Rainer Kattel, Tim O'Reilly, and Josh Entsminger, February 2021.
  • ‘. Danny In The Valley. Tim O’Reilly, Dec 4, 2020. Apple PodcastsÌý
  • . Tim O’Reilly, Quartz. July, 2019.Ìý

    Events

    1.ÌýAlgorithmic Rents research showcase,12 October 2023Ìýin conversation with Mariana Mazzucato, Tim O’Reilly and Ilan Strauss on Algorithmic Rents. Download here the showcase presentation slides.

    2.Ìý¹û¶³Ó°Ôº IIPPÌýhosted an expertÌýworkshop onÌýalgorithmicÌýrents Ìýin October 2022Ìý- To inform our research process investigating algorithmic attention rents, ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº IIPPÌýhosted an expertÌýworkshopÌýin October 2022. Experts from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, Ofcom, and the Financial Conduct Authority joined academics to discuss IIPP’s latest digital economy research on ‘algorithmic rents': how algorithms distribute benefits through allocating users’ attention.


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    Contact

    Ilan Strauss,ÌýSenior Research Associate at the ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP).

    Email:Ìýi.strauss@ucl.ac.uk

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