Essays on Economics of Internet Personalization

The first essay of this doctoral dissertation empirically measures the business value of personalization using data consisting of 600,000 email advertisements with varying degrees of personalization sent to 35,000 customers over a nine month period. While we confirm that personalization based on customers past interests generates a positive response, we also report evidence that customers are concerned about privacy and respond negatively when the firm sends them advertisements with personalized greetings. We also use a finite mixture model to account for consumer specific heterogeneity in our data and identify segments of consumers with different response to personalization. The second essay uses a game-theoretic model to analyze the economics of personalization and information sharing in a duopoly where firms are asymmetric in the amount of information that they possess. We show that sharing consumer information leads to an increase in the firm profits but a decrease in consumer surplus. We also show that information sharing is possible even if each consumer controls her information and decides whether the firm should share it or not with other firms. Under different conditions, information ownership by consumers poses a credible threat and deters firms from sharing information or a non-credible threat, when consumers allow their information to be shared even if they are worse off after information sharing. Finally, the presence of privacy-conscious consumers leads to a redistribution of surplus from firms to consumers but can lead to a decrease in social welfare

Utility of multiplex real-time PCR in the diagnosis of extrapulmonary tuberculosis

AbstractObjectiveThe diagnosis of extrapulmonary tuberculosis is still a challenge because of its pauci-bacillary nature. The aim of the study was to evaluate the role of a multiplex PCR assay in the diagnosis of extrapulmonary tuberculosis and to compare the efficiency of two targets, IS6110 and MPB64 to detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis.Methods150 extrapulmonary samples (61 pus/aspirate, 46 tissue, 32 body fluids, and 11 urine) from clinically suspected cases of tuberculosis were included in the study. All the samples were subjected to direct fluorescent microscopy, TB culture (BacT/ALERT 3D, biomerieux, Durham, North Carolina, USA) and a Multiplexed Tandem PCR targeting two mycobacterial DNA sequences, IS6110 and MPB64. Master-Mix reagents and primers were prepared by AusDiagnostics Pvt. Ltd (Alexandria, New South Wales, Australia). The performance of the assay was assessed using a composite gold standard, which included clinical characteristics, microbiology smear as well as culture, histopathology, cytology, radiology, and response to antitubercular therapy.Results20.3%, 23.6%, and 45.3% of specimens were positive by smear, culture, and PCR, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of the multiplex PCR was 91.9% and 88.4%, respectively, using the composite gold standard. Positive and negative predictive values of the PCR were estimated as 85.1% and 93.8%, respectively. Higher positivity was observed with target IS6110 (44.6%) as compared to target MPB64 (18.9%). The sensitivities of IS6110 and MPB64 individual targets were 90.3% and 64.5%, respectively, and specificities were 88.4% and 97.7%, respectively.ConclusionPCR can play an important role in rapid and accurate diagnosis of extrapulmonary tuberculosis. IS6110 alone is an effective target in our part of the country

What Doctors Wish They Knew: Treatment Compliance in an Online Health Community for Chronic Patients

Treatment compliance for patients with chronic health problems is important for the management of their illness due to the long-term nature of their conditions. In this study, we examine how evaluations of different types of treatments provided by members of an online health community are associated with treatment evaluations and compliance. We use self-reported data on evaluation and compliance of over 270 different treatments from over 20,000 patients in a prominent online health community. We find that other community members’ treatment evaluation valence is positively associated with patient treatment evaluation and treatment compliance. Similarly, other community members’ treatment compliance is positively associated with patient treatment compliance. We also find these relations are moderated by community size and ratings variance. We discuss the theoretical implications of these results for the online health communities’ literature, as well as the practical implications for patients, healthcare providers, and policy makers

Understanding IT-Enabled Social Features in Online Peer-to-Peer Businesses for Cultural Goods

Although the use of IT-enabled social features is gaining prominence on online peer-to-peer platforms, the use of these features is not well understood in the context of e-commerce marketplaces. In this study, we explain the effects of using IT-enabled social features for sellers by using data from Etsy.com, which is an online peer-to-peer marketplace for cultural goods that provides social features to its participants. Using the theory of fields of cultural production, we propose hypotheses regarding the direct and indirect impact of IT-enabled social features on sales. We find that sellers’ use of IT-enabled social features for community participation (e.g., following members) and content curation (e.g., sharing favorite items) is positively associated with their online status, which in turn is positively associated with their sales. However, sellers’ use of IT-enabled social features is directly negatively associated with sales. Overall, we find that the indirect positive association is large enough to offset the negative direct association. These results have important implications for sellers on online peer-to-peer platforms and for platform design

Do Security Vulnerability Announcemnets Impact Software Vendors - An Event Study Analysis

In this paper, we use the event study methodology to examine the role that financial markets play in determining the impact of vulnerability disclosures on software vendors. We collect data from leading national newspapers and industry sources by searching for reports on published software vulnerabilities. Our main result is that vulnerability disclosures do lead to a negative and significant change in market value for a software vendor. On average, a vendor loses around 0.6% value in stock price when a vulnerability is reported. To provide further insight, we use the information content of the disclosure announcement to classify vulnerabilities into various types. This is the first study to measure vendors’ incentive to develop secure software and also provides many interesting implications for software vendors as well as policy makers

Ride-sharing apps really reduce drunk driving fatalities

Uber X led to a 3.6%–5.6% decrease in the rate of motor vehicle homicides per quarter in California, write Sunil Wattal and Brad N. Greenwoo

IS IT THE GREAT EQUALIZER? A SOCIAL CLASS BASED LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS OF TECHNOLOGY DIFFUSION

Technology in general and the Internet in particular have often been seen as the ―great equalizer‖ in that it provides a level playing field for all individuals in the society in terms of competing for social and economic opportunities. However, technology philosophers such as Andrew Feenberg have argued that technology diffusion mirrors the existing social order. Which of these worldviews actually holds is an open question, and in this research, we try to answer it using data on adoption of multiple technologies by individuals in the US over different time periods. Our results suggest that technology diffusion largely takes place along existing social class lines, and that the arrival of newer technologies ensures that the digital divide perpetuates