Events

Assistant Professor of Marketing
HKU Business School , The University of Hong Kong

Using data on user search and matching histories from an online dating site, we study the role of information in matching markets, emphasizing how partial or full information about the other side influences the final matching outcomes. We find that more information about the other side may make matching outcomes worse. This effect is mainly driven by the misaligned preferences (i.e., preference mismatch) between the two sides. Our findings suggest there exists an optimal amount of information that the platform should provide to each side before a match is proposed. A consumer theory model is developed to rationalize the behavior and shed light on optimal information provision strategies.