This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. American Economic Review
  4. May 2014
  5. Trading Dollars for Dollars: The Price of Attention Online and Offline

American Economic Review

ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)

Trading Dollars for Dollars: The Price of Attention Online and Offline

  • Matthew Gentzkow
American Economic Review
vol. 104, no. 5, May 2014
(pp. 481–88)
Download Full Text PDF

Abstract

Popular accounts suggest that advertising revenue per unit of consumer attention is lower online than offline, and has fallen in traditional media as the Internet has made advertising markets more competitive. I assess these claims theoretically and empirically, and compare the patterns we observe for the Internet to trends in advertising around the introduction of television and radio. The evidence suggests that the price of attention for similar consumers is actually higher online than offline, and that the growth of new media is not robustly associated with a declining price of attention.

Citation

Gentzkow, Matthew. 2014. "Trading Dollars for Dollars: The Price of Attention Online and Offline." American Economic Review, 104 (5): 481–88. DOI: 10.1257/aer.104.5.481

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • L82 Entertainment; Media
  • M31 Marketing
  • M37 Advertising