文献类型：期刊文献

英文题名：Who should decide how much information to collect?

作者：Li, Youping[1,2];Zhang, Jianhu[3]

机构：[1]East China Univ Sci & Technol, Sch Business, Shanghai 200237, Peoples R China;[2]East China Univ Sci & Technol, Res Inst Digital Econ, Shanghai 200237, Peoples R China;[3]Shandong Univ, Sch Econ, 27 Shanda South Rd, Jinan 250100, Shandong, Peoples R China

年份：2024

卷号：77

期号：1

起止页码：256

外文期刊名：OXFORD ECONOMIC PAPERS-NEW SERIES

收录：;WOS:【SSCI(收录号:WOS:001240546500001)】；

基金：This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of China [22YJC790064] and the National Natural Science Foundation of China [72373082, 72192842].

语种：英文

外文关键词：information collection; information disclosure; privacy

摘要：This article examines the tradeoffs concerning the collection and disclosure of personal information and considers either the seller or the buyers choosing how much information to collect. We identify two channels through which having heterogeneous buyers make the decision increases social welfare: the full internalization of privacy costs and the customized choice of information levels. Perhaps surprisingly, the buyers voluntarily provide more information than what is mandatorily collected particularly when privacy is a significant concern, which often benefits the seller. Consumer and total welfare are increased with buyers choosing how much information to collect unless the external value of information is sufficiently large relative to the buyers' privacy cost and heterogeneity in valuation. Given the growing privacy concerns surrounding personal data, our analysis supports offering consumers the autonomy, which can result in a Pareto improvement.