Ershov, Daniel   <br/><br/>
Variety-based congestion in online markets: Evidence from mobile apps 

 - American Economic Journal: Microeconomics 
 - 16(2). May, 2024: p.180-203 
<br/><br/> In many online markets, consumers have to spend time and effort browsing through products. The addition of new products could make other products less visible, creating congestion externalities. Using Android app store data, I take advantage of a natural experiment—a redesign of part of the store—to show evidence of congestion externalities online: more apps in the market directly reduce per app usage/downloads. The natural experiment also increases long-run entry, but a structural demand model that accounts for congestion externalities suggests that 40 percent of consumer variety welfare gains are lost from higher congestion.- Reproduced <br/><br/>https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/mic.20200347<br/> 
<br/><br/><label>Subjects--Topical Terms: </label><br/>Online markets, Product browsing, Congestion externalities, Android app store, Natural experiment, App visibility, Usage reduction, Download impact, Market entry, Structural demand model, Consumer welfare, Variety gains, Platform design, Digital congestion, App market dynamics, Welfare loss, User behavior, Interface redesign, Economic modeling, Market saturation