Publications

This study examines how Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework affected the App Store ecosystem. Using data on every app in both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store over an 18-month period, we analyze how developers and consumers adapted to stricter privacy rules. Despite industry concerns that ATT would harm app innovation and revenue, we find no evidence of widespread developer exit. Instead, developers adjusted by reducing reliance on advertising SDKs and modestly increasing use of authentication and payment tools, with minimal impact on consumer ratings or engagement. The results suggest that privacy regulation can prompt adaptation rather than disruption in digital ecosystems.

This paper investigates the real-world impact of the GDPR on online content providers. Contrary to widespread industry fears, our findings show that while EU websites adapted by reducing user tracking, the regulation did not significantly harm their ability to produce content, engage audiences, or survive in the market.

This paper investigates the real-world impact of the GDPR on online content providers. Contrary to widespread industry fears, our findings show that while EU websites adapted by reducing user tracking, the regulation did not significantly harm their ability to produce content, engage audiences, or survive in the market.

This paper evaluates the economic arguments surrounding privacy regulation in behaviorally targeted advertising. While industry groups often claim that regulation harms innovation and consumer welfare, our review of theoretical and empirical evidence shows that these claims are weakly supported. We demonstrate that privacy regulation can be economically justified—not only ethically or legally—by reducing harms and promoting a fairer distribution of value in the digital economy.

This paper evaluates the economic arguments surrounding privacy regulation in behaviorally targeted advertising. While industry groups often claim that regulation harms innovation and consumer welfare, our review of theoretical and empirical evidence shows that these claims are weakly supported. We demonstrate that privacy regulation can be economically justified—not only ethically or legally—by reducing harms and promoting a fairer distribution of value in the digital economy.

This study explores why governments have been slow to adopt natural language processing (NLP) tools for civic participation, despite their potential to enhance democratic engagement. Through interviews with politicians and public servants, we find that differing career incentives and concerns about legitimacy shape how each group evaluates and designs NLP tools. The absence of clear responsibility for advocating or overseeing adoption further hinders progress. These insights highlight the social and institutional factors that influence AI adoption in government and inform the design of NLP systems that better support public participation.

This study explores why governments have been slow to adopt natural language processing (NLP) tools for civic participation, despite their potential to enhance democratic engagement. Through interviews with politicians and public servants, we find that differing career incentives and concerns about legitimacy shape how each group evaluates and designs NLP tools. The absence of clear responsibility for advocating or overseeing adoption further hinders progress. These insights highlight the social and institutional factors that influence AI adoption in government and inform the design of NLP systems that better support public participation.

This paper examines how self-checkout machines—often framed as automation—actually shift labor onto customers while transforming the work of cashiers. Drawing on interviews with frontline retail workers, we show that self-checkout introduces new forms of multitasking, problem-solving, and customer policing, often positioning workers in adversarial roles. To manage these tensions, cashiers perform “relational patchwork,” using empathy and improvisation to preserve positive customer interactions. The study reveals how pseudo-automation reshapes not only tasks but also relationships in service work.

This paper examines how self-checkout machines—often framed as automation—actually shift labor onto customers while transforming the work of cashiers. Drawing on interviews with frontline retail workers, we show that self-checkout introduces new forms of multitasking, problem-solving, and customer policing, often positioning workers in adversarial roles. To manage these tensions, cashiers perform “relational patchwork,” using empathy and improvisation to preserve positive customer interactions. The study reveals how pseudo-automation reshapes not only tasks but also relationships in service work.

This study explores how image-generative AI (IGAI) can support participatory design processes for public spaces. Through workshops and AI-mediated interviews conducted during a real-world park redesign in Los Angeles, we find that IGAI shifts the focus of design conversations—from producing accurate renderings to fostering richer, more spatially grounded discussions among stakeholders. The results highlight both the promise and the challenges of using generative AI in collaborative settings, including the crucial role of facilitators and the skills needed to manage human–AI–stakeholder interactions.

This study explores how image-generative AI (IGAI) can support participatory design processes for public spaces. Through workshops and AI-mediated interviews conducted during a real-world park redesign in Los Angeles, we find that IGAI shifts the focus of design conversations—from producing accurate renderings to fostering richer, more spatially grounded discussions among stakeholders. The results highlight both the promise and the challenges of using generative AI in collaborative settings, including the crucial role of facilitators and the skills needed to manage human–AI–stakeholder interactions.

Following George Floyd’s murder in 2020, many companies—including Kickstarter—publicly expressed support for racial justice. This study examines whether Kickstarter’s visible #BlackLivesMatter campaign, displayed across the platform for over a year, led to improved outcomes for Black creators. Using data on projects launched before and after the campaign, we find that while the initiative increased the participation of Black creators, it did not raise their funding success rates. The findings highlight the limits of symbolic corporate activism and the persistent structural inequities faced by underrepresented creators in digital platforms.

Using data on over 6,000 New York City restaurants, this study shows how platforms like OpenTable reshape pricing and competition in traditional industries. Restaurants typically pass platform fees on to consumers, while moderate adopters benefit most from participation. The findings reveal both the value and the risks of relying on digital intermediaries.

This study examines how retailers use AI to prevent theft, focusing on three approaches—eyes (surveillance), locks (physical deterrents), and patterns (AI-based anomaly detection). While AI adds new capabilities, these systems still rely on frontline workers to interpret and act. The findings highlight how automation reshapes, rather than replaces, human discretion in retail security.

This study examines how public parks can foster inclusion and belonging among immigrants in Los Angeles—the nation’s most park-poor yet one of its most diverse cities. Through a participatory project to transform a former landfill into a public park, we explore how immigrants’ transgenerational and translocal experiences shape their perceptions and use of green spaces. The findings highlight design practices that make public spaces more inclusive of diversity and difference, offering insights into how urban environments can better support immigrant communities.

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.
See below for working paper, and video of presentation at the Economics of Digital Services EODS Economics of Digital Services Inaugural Research Symposium.

Image generative AI (IGAI) could change how policymakers engage with the public to design public spaces, facilitating how designers translate the public’s desires into features. However, using IGAI has challenges, such as encoded biases, which might reinforce stereotypes and harm underrepresented communities. We conducted a case study to explore how using IGAI alters the co-design process of public parks through public engagement. We use data collected from interviews with immigrants discussing the Puente Hills Landfill Park design in Los Angeles, which will re-purpose a former landfill into a new public park. We use Dream Studio as a Design Probe, generating images from the interviewees’ insights and critically reflecting on the design process through internal interviews and a reflective workshop. We analyze our case in three domains: Opportunities, Risks and Challenges, and Features and Requirements. In the opportunities domain, we discuss how the enhanced translation of words to images changes the relationship between stakeholder engagement, multiplicity, and efficiency. In the risks and challenges domain, we discuss how IGAI might enhance power imbalances and biases. Finally, we reflect on what features would ease the safe and responsible use of IGAI to engage citizens in co-designing public parks.

Concerns regarding online tracking and excessive advertising have led to a marked increase in the adoption of Ad-Blocking tools. We conduct a field experiment to study users’ valuation of Ad-Blockers, and to study how exposing or shielding users from online advertising influences their online experiences, their attitudes towards online advertising, their valuation of ad-blocking tools, and their future usage of such tools. We find that for users currently using an ad-blocker, uninstalling them leads to a deterioration in their online experiences and lower satisfaction with recent purchases. For users that were not using Ad-Blockers, installing one led to fewer reported regrets with purchases, an improvement in subjective well-being, and a less positive view of online advertising. In terms of users’ valuation of Ad-Blockers, we observe a great degree of heterogeneity. Some users are not willing to uninstall their Ad-Blocker even if offered large payments (>$100). Conversely, a similar number of users are not willing to install an Ad-Blocker even if offered large payments. However, most users are willing to install/uninstall an Ad-Blocker in exchange for moderate payments (<$20). Our experimental treatment has a large effect on future usage of Ad-Blockers. Participants that we ask to install an Ad-Blocker are much more likely to use Ad-Blocker after the experiment ends than comparable participants in the control group. However, not all this effect can be attributed to the benefits of Ad-Blocking, as we also observed that the participants that we asked to uninstall their Ad-Blocker are more likely to continue not-using an Ad-Blocker after the experiment ends, although the magnitude of this effect was smaller.

This study tracks how website privacy dialogs evolved in the 18 months following the GDPR’s implementation. Analyzing screenshots from 911 U.S. and EU news sites, we find that over time, more websites offered genuine “accept or reject” choices and fewer used dark patterns to nudge consent. These changes suggest that external pressures—such as government guidance and compliance tools—helped bring real-world GDPR practices closer to its intended privacy goals.

This study analyzes how scientists on Twitter react to high-visibility events. Using a longitudinal sample of 17,157 scientists and a matching-based framework, why study how unusual visibility events affect users’ subsequent behaviors and long-term visibility on the platform.

We study firm performance in the semiconductor industry after the introduction of the integrated circuit, comparing the outcomes experienced by diversifying firms and new entrants across different clusters. Over the long term, succesful firms were disproportionately Spinoffs of leading firms, or diversifiers with a transistor background. New firms in Silicon Valley were more likely to enter at the technological frontier. However, over the long term, location had no significance on becoming a top producer.

We study firm entry and inventor mobility in the Semiconductor Industry. Our results show most of the increased inventor mobility in Silicon Valley is due to inventors moving from parents to spinoffs, or from incumbents to recent entrants. Incumbents in Silicon Valley don’t seem to benefit from the greater mobility of inventors in the cluster, as they don’t hire inventors at a higer rate than incumbents in other regions, while they lose many inventors that leave to join new firms.