Drip or drop : evidence on state dependence and consumption constraints from TV streaming
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- I study how state dependence affects consumer choices when consumption is constrained by product release strategies. Using a unique dataset of automatically-logged user-level TV streaming data, I show that constraints on users' consumption imposed by the availability of episodes affect consumption choices and that these choices lead to state dependence within and across shows. This implies that show-level policies will affect aggregate consumption outcomes. However, because consumers communicate about TV shows, user-level experimentation with episode release timing is practically infeasible. Instead, I estimate a structural model of TV watching that includes state dependence and consumption constraints via episode availability. This enables the evaluation of counterfactual episode release policies. I allow state dependence to spill over to other shows and to affect subsequent choices, thereby linking release policy and total viewership outcomes. I find evidence for state dependence and imperfect spillovers across shows. Counterfactual simulations highlight the importance of episode release timing. as an input to overall watching behavior for streaming platforms. This work has implications for product availability strategies and policies which encourage varying patterns of consumption in any setting where consumption is constrained or may be state-dependent.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2023; ©2023 |
| Publication date | 2023; 2023 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Zeller, Jonathan Alden |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Narayanan, Sridhar, 1970- |
| Thesis advisor | Narayanan, Sridhar, 1970- |
| Thesis advisor | Kim, Yewon |
| Thesis advisor | Lattin, James M |
| Degree committee member | Kim, Yewon |
| Degree committee member | Lattin, James M |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Graduate School of Business |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Jon Zeller. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Graduate School of Business. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2023. |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/tr784rv5475 |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2023 by Jonathan Alden Zeller
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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