arXiv:2508.08325econ.GNcs.AI2025-08被引 1

AI卖家在定价与广告协同决策下反而可能降低价格,惠及三方。

Algorithmic Collusion of Pricing and Advertising on E-commerce Platforms

  • 算法联合优化定价与广告投放,通过降低广告竞价来减少成本。
  • 高搜索成本下,价格低于竞争水平,平台需求扩大。
  • 适用于各类探索型学习算法,对平台调节策略有启示。

当在线卖家使用AI学习算法在电商平台自动竞争时,人们担心它们会协同抬高价格。然而,这种担忧主要基于单一维度的价格竞争。本文研究了当卖家同时进行定价与广告决策(即二维决策)时,这一预测是否成立。通过分析多智能体强化学习,并利用来自Amazon.com的大规模数据集进行实证分析,我们发现:当消费者搜索成本较高时,学习算法会协调在低于竞争水平的价格,实现消费者、卖家和平台的三方共赢。这是由于算法学会降低广告出价,从而降低广告成本,导致价格下降并扩大平台需求。我们的结果对任何使用价格与广告出价探索的学习算法均具有普适性。实证分析显示,价格水平与估算的消费者搜索成本和算法使用指数呈负相关。我们进一步分析平台的战略响应,发现调整保留价不会提升平台利润,但调整佣金率可提升利润,同时维持对卖家和消费者的有利结果。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

When online sellers use AI learning algorithms to automatically compete on e-commerce platforms, there is concern that they will learn to coordinate on higher than competitive prices. However, this concern was primarily raised in single-dimension price competition. We investigate whether this prediction holds when sellers make pricing and advertising decisions together, i.e., two-dimensional decisions. We analyze competition in multi-agent reinforcement learning, and use a large-scale dataset from Amazon.com to provide empirical evidence. We show that when consumers have high search costs, learning algorithms can coordinate on prices lower than competitive prices, facilitating a win-win-win for consumers, sellers, and platforms. This occurs because algorithms learn to coordinate on lower advertising bids, which lower advertising costs, leading to lower prices and enlarging demand on the platform. We also show that our results generalize to any learning algorithm that uses exploration of price and advertising bids. Consistent with our predictions, an empirical analysis shows that price levels exhibit a negative interaction between estimated consumer search costs and algorithm usage index. We analyze the platform's strategic response and find that reserve price adjustments will not increase platform profits, but commission adjustments will, while maintaining the beneficial outcomes for both sellers and consumers.

AI定价平台经济强化学习广告博弈

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