We hope this paper offers policymakers important guidance about the winners and losers from privacy regulation and how it interacts w/ multiproduct monopoly.

Big lesson: focus on ways to protect poorer consumers' privacy specifically!

Last: what if consumers don't like their data being *used* for ads? We show that this can lead to the poorest & wealthiest consumers being made better off, but the lower-middle class is harmed.

Second: what if consumers intrinsically value privacy? Doesn't change their choices, but privacy regulation shifts everybody's preferences upward. If the wealthy value their privacy more than the poor, then privacy policy becomes even more regressive (but obviously good for CS)

We explore 3 extensions. First: what if wealthy eyeballs are more valuable than poor ones to advertisers? Turns out everything goes through *if* wealthy eyeball profitability is most impacted by privacy regulation.

Who gains? Inframarginal premium consumers (wealthy) who pay lower p. Who loses? Inframarginal free consumers (poor) who face higher a. Distributionally bad! We show this using my (Leisten 2024) "inequality-adjusted consumer surplus"

Privacy regulation worsens targeting, lowers advertiser WTP, and induces the platform to *shift* users from ad-supported to premium by raising a & lowering p

(This is only true in a "full coverage separating equilibrium" which we define and provide conditions for in the paper)

We build a simple model:
- Poorer consumers have lower (higher) marginal aversion to ads (spending money)
- Monopoly freemium platform chooses ad load (a) and premium price (p)
- Profits are premium revenue plus ad-revenue, which is per-eyeball advertiser WTP * number of eyeballs

Freemium: a free ad-supported version and a paid ad-free version, is everywhere these days. Youtube, Spotify, Netflix, etc.

Why offer the ad-supported version? You can get price-sensitive (poorer) customers but still monetize their attention

Never figured you to be an MMT guy but ok

Weird best response function

My dad died while I was on the market (albeit during flyout season). Submit applications to anyplace that still allows submissions (even if the deadline has nominally passed). Then reach out to your advisor. Your committee may be able to make some calls to explain your circumstances. Good luck!

If we are talking about this paper, then yes omg what a tour de force

Yeah, I'm all for better frameworks! I'm also sympathetic to everyone who takes a sigh of relief when someone agrees that the market they're studying is plausibly not two-sided