IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/rpo/ripoec/v96y2006i6p9-23.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Economics of Internet Search

Author

Listed:
  • Hal R. Varian

    (University of California at Berkeley)

Abstract

This lecture provides an introduction to the economics of Internet search engines. After a brief review of the historical development of the technology and the industry, I describe some of the economic features of the auction system used for displaying ads. It turns out that some relatively simple economic models provide significant insight into the operation of these auctions. In particular, the classical theory of two-sided matching markets turns out to be very useful in this context.

Suggested Citation

  • Hal R. Varian, 2006. "The Economics of Internet Search," Rivista di Politica Economica, SIPI Spa, vol. 96(6), pages 9-23, November-.
  • Handle: RePEc:rpo:ripoec:v:96:y:2006:i:6:p:9-23
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.rivistapoliticaeconomica.it/2006/nov_dic/pdf/Varian_eng.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vijay Krishna & Motty Perry, 1997. "Efficient Mechanism Design," Game Theory and Information 9703010, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 28 Apr 1998.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Emanuele Tarantino, 2012. "A Note on Vertical Search Engines’ Foreclosure," Chapters, in: Joseph E. Harrington Jr & Yannis Katsoulacos (ed.), Recent Advances in the Analysis of Competition Policy and Regulation, chapter 8, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Tarantino, Emanuele, 2013. "A simple model of vertical search engines foreclosure," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 1-12.
    3. Vlastakis, Nikolaos & Markellos, Raphael N., 2012. "Information demand and stock market volatility," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 1808-1821.
    4. Massimo PERI & Daniela VANDONE & Lucia BALDI, 2012. "Internet, noise trading and commodity prices," Departmental Working Papers 2012-07, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    5. Moussa, Faten & Delhoumi, Ezzeddine & Ouda, Olfa Ben, 2017. "Stock return and volatility reactions to information demand and supply," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(PA), pages 54-67.
    6. Sasson, Elan & Ravid, Gilad & Pliskin, Nava, 2015. "Improving similarity measures of relatedness proximity: Toward augmented concept maps," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 618-628.
    7. Yanwu Yang & Daniel Zeng & Yinghui Yang & Jie Zhang, 2015. "Optimal Budget Allocation Across Search Advertising Markets," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 27(2), pages 285-300, May.
    8. Peri, Massimo & Vandone, Daniela & Baldi, Lucia, 2014. "Internet, noise trading and commodity futures prices," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 82-89.
    9. Peri, Massimo & Vandone, Daniela & Baldi, Lucia, 2012. "Information Demand and Agriculture Commodity Prices," 2012 International European Forum, February 13-17, 2012, Innsbruck-Igls, Austria 144973, International European Forum on System Dynamics and Innovation in Food Networks.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andrés Abeliuk & Gerardo Berbeglia & Pascal Van Hentenryck, 2015. "Bargaining Mechanisms for One-Way Games," Games, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-21, September.
    2. Jehiel, Philippe & Lamy, Laurent, 2014. "On discrimination in procurement auctions," CEPR Discussion Papers 9790, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Müller, R.J. & Gui, H. & Vohra, R., 2004. "Dominant strategy mechanisms with multidimensional types," Research Memorandum 046, Maastricht University, Maastricht Research School of Economics of Technology and Organization (METEOR).
    4. Sameer Mehta & Milind Dawande & Ganesh Janakiraman & Vijay Mookerjee, 2020. "Sustaining a Good Impression: Mechanisms for Selling Partitioned Impressions at Ad Exchanges," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(1), pages 126-147, March.
    5. S. Viswanathan & S. Brusco & G. Lopomo, 2004. "Mergers Mechanisms," Econometric Society 2004 North American Winter Meetings 317, Econometric Society.
    6. Fieseler, Karsten & Kittsteiner, Thomas & Moldovanu, Benny, 2003. "Partnerships, lemons, and efficient trade," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 113(2), pages 223-234, December.
    7. Sushil Bikhchandani & Shurojit Chatterjee & Arunava Sen, 2004. "Incentive Compatibility in Multi-unit Auctions," Levine's Bibliography 122247000000000750, UCLA Department of Economics.
    8. Abraham Neyman & Tim Russo, 2006. "Public Goods and Budget Deficit," Levine's Bibliography 321307000000000182, UCLA Department of Economics.
    9. M. Yenmez, 2015. "Incentive compatible market design with applications," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 44(3), pages 543-569, August.
    10. Albano, Gian Luigi & Germano, Fabrizio & Lovo, Stefano, 2001. "A comparison of standard multi-unit auctions with synergies," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 55-60, April.
    11. Nicolas Figueroa & Vasiliki Skreta, 2007. "What to put in the table," Documentos de Trabajo 237, Centro de Economía Aplicada, Universidad de Chile.
    12. Alex Gershkov & Paul Schweinzer, 2010. "When queueing is better than push and shove," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 39(3), pages 409-430, July.
    13. Moldovanu, Benny & Ewerhart II, Christian, 2001. "The German UMTS Design: Insights From Multi-Object Auction Theory," Sonderforschungsbereich 504 Publications 02-05, Sonderforschungsbereich 504, Universität Mannheim;Sonderforschungsbereich 504, University of Mannheim.
    14. Schmitz, Patrick W., 2010. "Contractual solutions to hold-up problems with quality uncertainty and unobservable investments," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(5), pages 807-816, September.
    15. Jeong, Seungwon (Eugene) & Lee, Joosung, 2024. "The groupwise-pivotal referral auction: Core-selecting referral strategy-proof mechanism," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 191-203.
    16. Nicolás Figueroa & Vasiliki Skreta, 2011. "Optimal allocation mechanisms with single-dimensional private information," Review of Economic Design, Springer;Society for Economic Design, vol. 15(3), pages 213-243, September.
    17. Hannu Vartiainen, 2003. "Auction Design without Commitment," Working Papers 2003.24, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    18. , K. & ,, 2016. "On the impossibility of core-selecting auctions," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 11(1), January.
    19. Olivier Compte & Philippe Jehiel, 2004. "Inefficiencies in Bargaining: Departing from Akerlof and Myerson-Satterthwaite," Levine's Bibliography 122247000000000744, UCLA Department of Economics.
    20. Manipushpak Mitra & Arunava Sen, 2010. "Efficient allocation of heterogenous commodities with balanced transfers," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 35(1), pages 29-48, June.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • L86 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Information and Internet Services; Computer Software
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rpo:ripoec:v:96:y:2006:i:6:p:9-23. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sabrina Marino (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.