Recommenders

Information is power. And information about options or alternatives endows the information-holder with substantial power over what alternatives decision makers consider, what information they see about these alternatives, and ultimately what they choose. In recent years, such information and power has become the domain of automated systems such as search engines, recommenders and other software platforms, because these systems can use vast data collection technologies, indexing algorithms, storage, and information retrieval algorithms on an unprecedented scale. Their power is particularly salient when the number of alternatives is massive, because "if you don't get ranked well by a search engine, you don't exist," giving these systems incredible power over the producers or sellers that the decision makers are interested in. A number of interesting questions arise regarding the design, operation and business of such systems: how do they make money (e.g., by sponsored search)? is there conflict of interest in making recommendations and monetizing them through payments? how should such systems be regulated? My research explores a few of these questions.

Academic Research Publications

  • Juan Feng, Hemant K. Bhargava, and David Pennock, “Implementing Sponsored Search in Web Search Engines: Computational Evaluation of Alternative Mechanisms”, INFORMS Journal on Computing 19.1 (2007), pp. 137–148.

Winner of INFORMS Journal on Computing Test of Time Paper Award (for papers published during 2003-2007) in January 2020. See Retrospective.

  • Hemant K. Bhargava, Gergely Csapo, and Rudolf Muller, “On Optimal Auctions for Mixing Exclusive and Shared Matching in Platforms”, Management Science (forthcoming) (2020).

  • Hemant K. Bhargava and Juan Feng, “Quality Signaling under External Information”, working paper (2016).

  • Hemant K. Bhargava and Vidyanand Choudhary, “Economics of an Information Intermediary with Aggregation Benefits”, Information Systems Research 15.1 (2004), pp. 22–36.

  • Hemant K. Bhargava, Vidyanand Choudhary, and Ramayya Krishnan, “Pricing and Product Design: Intermediary Strategies in an Electronic Market”, International Journal of Electronic Commerce 5.5 (2000), pp. 37–56.