2027 edition · Call for papers

Workshop on
Platform Analytics

A single-track, multidisciplinary workshop presenting new scientific research on how data improves decisions in platform contexts. Held annually at UC San Diego.

About the workshop

Scholarly communication about platform analytics

The Workshop on Platform Analytics presents new scientific research on platform analytics.

Platforms enable direct interactions between agents. Marketplaces connect buyers and sellers; media platforms connect advertisers, creators and consumers; sharing platforms connect resource owners with resource users; app stores connect software developers and users. Network externalities distinguish platforms from traditional business models: platform value to customers depends on how many other customers, of various types, are using the same platform.

Platforms have become pervasive in the digital economy. Most of the largest firms in the world are platforms, and there are also platforms of all sizes. Platform design enables valuable connections, platform policies structure customer transactions, and platforms remediate when things go wrong. Yet platform incentives may diverge from some customer interests, leading to some questionable practices. Policymakers at all levels are grappling with platform issues, suggesting a need for a deeper understanding of platform topics.

“The purpose of knowledge is action.”

We construe Platform Analytics broadly as using data to improve decisions in a platform context. The decisions might be taken by platforms themselves, the customers they connect, policymakers or others. The data might come from within a platform or outside it, and the improvement may be from any party's perspective.

WoPA's goal is to facilitate scholarly communication about platform analytics. We seek to promote high standards of evidence, relevance, openness, inclusivity and multidisciplinarity.

Accepted papers are archived below. Past talks are on the WoPA YouTube channel.

2027 Call for papers

Submit your working paper to WoPA 2027

We invite new working papers on platform analytics for a competitive evaluation process. Most submissions receive direct feedback from the program committee.

The Workshop on Platform Analytics presents new scientific research on platform analytics. We welcome relevant submissions from government, industry or any academic discipline, including computer science, economics, information systems, marketing, operations or others.

Relevant decisions might include platform design, rankings, listings, usage, pricing, advertising, personalization, ratings or reviews. Relevant topics might include:

  • network externalities;
  • agent utility, search, matching, purchase or welfare;
  • reputation, manipulation, trust or fraud;
  • discrimination, diversity or fairness;
  • competition within or between platforms;
  • data privacy and sharing;
  • antitrust or other regulations;

Ideal papers show how to use platform data to improve decisions in platform contexts.

Eligibility. We focus on new, unpublished work in the spirit of a workshop to help improve works in progress. We have limited reviewing resources and presentation slots. Therefore, we will only review or consider papers that are not published, not currently invited for revision by a journal, and were first posted online within the two years prior to the submission deadline. Additionally, we will not review more than one submission per submitting author. We thank you in advance for adhering to these rules, and welcome questions or comments.

Registration

Attending the workshop

All attendees must register. Registration fees primarily go toward catering expenses.

Authors of accepted papers are invited to register first. The registration link is posted here once the program is announced, typically about two months before the workshop.

Please contact Jana in case of difficulties, questions or refunds.

Registration includes lunch both days and dinner on the first day, including vegetarian and vegan options.

WoPA is an in-person event with no online or hybrid attendance option. We intend to post talk videos on the WoPA YouTube channel after the workshop.

Practical information

Travel, accommodation and directions

Travel to San Diego

  1. Southwest Airlines operates the most flights to/from San Diego (airport code: SAN) but requires a separate fare search.
  2. Travelers within Southern California may consider the Pacific Surfliner. Consult PacificSurfliner.com for travel advisories or closures due to cliffside erosion. We recommend the Solana Beach stop with a rideshare to campus.

Accommodation

There is no designated hotel for the workshop. We recommend booking early.

  1. For those who prefer rideshare services, we recommend the Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines, as it's reasonably priced and nearby (1.2 miles / 1.9 km).
  2. For those who prefer public transit and walking, we recommend the Residence Inn by Marriott or the Sheraton La Jolla. They are about 30 minutes walk from the workshop venue, mostly across campus, and 10-15 minutes walk from the Nobel Drive trolley station.
  3. The nearest and highest-quality choice is Estancia La Jolla, a 10-minute walk. However, it is relatively expensive. Similar alternatives include the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club and the Lodge at Torrey Pines.

Arriving at UCSD

  1. The workshop will be held at the UCSD Rady School of Management at 5 Scholars Drive North. We recommend taxi, ride share or walking as campus parking availability can be unpredictable.
  2. The UC San Diego Trolley Blue Line connects UCSD to Downtown San Diego near the airport. Trolleys run every 15 minutes and fares can be paid on the PRONTO app. We recommend using the trolley with two caveats. The UCSD Pepper Canyon stop is a 20-minute walk from the Rady School, including a hill. The trolley is usually busy and reasonably safe, but off-peak ridership can be unpredictable. The trolley does not run to the airport directly, but the Middletown Trolley Station is only a short walk from the airport's free Rental Car Shuttle stop at Admiral Boland Way, as described here.
  3. Driving directions to the Rady School are here. UCSD Visitor Parking information is here. Parking may require search across multiple parking lots.
  4. There is free parking in an unpaved lot at the Torrey Pines Gliderport, a 15-minute walk to the workshop site. However, the lot is popular and may be full.

Navigating within the Rady School

  1. Workshop coffee, registration, lunches, and luggage storage will be in MPR1, in the southwest corner of the Rady courtyard on the 1st floor. This room will remain staffed during workshop presentations.
  2. Workshop sessions will take place in 1E106, on the first floor of the Rady building furthest from the ocean. The room will not remain staffed between presentations.
Archive

Past workshops

Programs, accepted papers, talk recordings and program committees for every edition. Tap a year to expand.

2026 April 24–25, 2026 · UC San Diego10 papers · Program, papers and program committee

Friday, April 24, 2026

  1. Coffee, breakfast snacks
  2. Can Privacy Technologies Replace Cookies? Ad Revenue in a Field Experiment
    PresenterShunto Kobayashi (Boston U.)DiscussantYanwen Wang (UBC)
  3. Long or Short? Personalizing Ad Length and Frequency
    PresenterAli Goli (U. of Rochester)DiscussantMingyu Joo (UC Riverside)
  4. Lunch
  5. Designing Human-AI Collaboration: A Sufficient-Statistic Approach
    PresenterAlex Moehring (Purdue)DiscussantSam Goldberg (Stanford)
  6. Optimizing Multi-Stage Personalization in the Customer Journey
    PresenterYu Song (U. of Michigan)DiscussantJoel Persson (Spotify)
  7. Break
  8. Ranking Algorithms and Equilibrium Prices
    PresenterMalika Korganbekova (U. of Chicago)DiscussantSong Yao (WUSTL)
  9. Dinner at the Bella (vegan option: tacos de nopal, mini churros)

Saturday, April 25, 2026

  1. Coffee, breakfast snacks
  2. The Impact of LLM Adoption on Online User Behavior
    PresenterH. Tai Lam (UCLA)DiscussantTommaso Bondi (Cornell)
  3. Lunch
  4. Auctions Meet Bandits: An Empirical Analysis
    PresenterOmid Rafieian (Cornell)DiscussantRon Berman (U. of Pennsylvania)
  5. The Influence of the Vocal Minority: Evidence from Social Media Comments
    PresenterLena Song (UIUC)DiscussantYiting Deng (UCL)
  6. Break
  7. Can Increased Platform Liability Reduce Sex Trafficking? Evidence from the Price Effect
    PresenterHelen Zeng (UC Davis)DiscussantYi Liu (U. of Wisconsin)
  8. Workshop conclusion, optional walk to gliderport for sunset/dinner/drinks at own expense. Be advised of wind and uneven terrain. Tandem flights available onsite.
2026 Program Committee

We thank the Program Committee members. Their volunteer service makes this workshop possible.

  • Uttara Ananthakrishnan, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Guy Aridor, Northwestern Kellogg
  • Mimansa Bairathi, University College London
  • Shrabastee Banerjee, Tilburg University
  • Ron Berman, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
  • Shirsho Biswas, University of Washington
  • Ishita Chakraborty, University of Wisconsin Madison
  • Junhong Chu, Hong Kong University
  • Giovanni Compiani, University of Chicago
  • Ziwei Cong, Georgetown University
  • Tim Derdenger, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Yiting Deng, University College London
  • Dante Donati, Columbia Business School
  • Yaniv Dover, The Hebrew University
  • Limin Fang, Sauder School of Business
  • Richard Faltings, University of California San Diego
  • Jessica Fong, University of Michigan
  • Hortense Fong, Columbia University
  • Mohsen Foroughifar, Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Marita Freimane, University of Zurich
  • Samuel Goldberg, Stanford University
  • Ali Goli, University of Washington
  • Tong Guo, Duke University
  • Sherry He, Michigan State University
  • David Holtz, Columbia
  • Yufeng Huang, University of Rochester
  • Marat Ibragimov, Emory University
  • Mingyu Joo, University of California, Riverside
  • Aaron Kaye, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Hülya Karaman, Singapore Management University
  • Anuj Kapoor, University of Missouri
  • Malika Korganbekova, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business
  • Tai Lam, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Poet Larsen, Harvard Business School
  • Jura Liaukonyte, Cornell University
  • Hui Li, The University of Hong Kong
  • Meng Liu, Washington University in St Louis
  • Yi Liu, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  • Fei Long, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Leonardo Madio, University of Padua
  • Nikhil Malik, Marshall School of Business, USC
  • Emaad Manzoor, Cornell University
  • Daniel McCarthy, University of Maryland, College Park
  • Klaus Miller, HEC Paris
  • Sridhar Moorthy, University of Toronto
  • Unnati Narang, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
  • Sridhar Narayanan, Stanford University
  • Olivia Natan, UC Berkeley
  • Joel Persson, Spotify
  • Omid Rafieian, Cornell University
  • Imke Reimers, National Bureau of Economic Research
  • Michelangelo Rossi, HEC Paris
  • Ananya Sen, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Amandeep Singh, Wharton Business School
  • Siddhartha Sharma, Indiana University
  • Venkatesh Shankar, Texas A&M University
  • Maria Ana Vitorino, INSEAD
  • Madhu Viswanathan, Indian School of Business
  • Caio Waisman, Northwestern University
  • Yanwen Wang, University of British Columbia
  • Yang Wang, Amazon
  • Nils Wernerfelt, Northwestern University
  • Chunhua Wu, University of British Columbia
  • Xu Zhang, London Business School
  • Shunyuan Zhang, Harvard Business School
  • Kai Zhu, Bocconi University
  • Yingkang Xie, Washington University in St. Louis
  • Zikun Ye, University of Washington
2025 April 4–5, 2025 · UC San Diego10 papers · Program, papers and program committee

Friday, April 4, 2025

  1. Coffee, breakfast snacks
  2. Pricing the Right to Renege in Search Markets: Evidence from Trucking
    PresenterRichard Faltings (UT Austin)DiscussantYingkang Xie (WUSTL)
  3. Gender Bias, Feedback, and Productivity
    PresenterMarita Freimane (Zurich)DiscussantMeng Liu (WUSTL)
  4. Lunch
  5. The Welfare Effects of Sponsored Product Advertising
    PresenterChuan Yu (HBS)DiscussantTai Lam (UCLA)
  6. Break
  7. Misinformation and Mistrust: The Equilibrium Effects of Fake Reviews on Amazon.com
    PresenterAshvin Gandhi (UCLA)DiscussantMalika Korganbekova (Chicago)
  8. Platform Papers: State of the Literature
    PresenterJoost Rietveld (UCL)
  9. Dinner at Ridgewalk Social

Saturday, April 5, 2025

  1. Coffee, breakfast snacks
  2. Data Sharing and Website Competition: The Role of Dark Patterns
    PresenterChiara Farronato (HBS)DiscussantSong Yao (WUSTL)
  3. Algorithmic Collusion of Pricing and Advertising on E-commerce Platforms
    PresenterHangcheng Zhao (U-Penn.)DiscussantSridhar Moorthy (Toronto)
  4. Lunch
  5. Information Signals in Sponsored Search: Evidence from Google’s BERT
    PresenterPoet Larsen (USC)DiscussantOlivia Natan (UC Berkeley)
  6. Break
  7. Visual Polarization Measurement Using Counterfactual Image Generation
    PresenterOmid Rafieian (Cornell)DiscussantDavid Holtz (UC Berkeley)
  8. Workshop conclusion, optional walk to gliderport for sunset/dinner/drinks at own expense. Be advised of wind and uneven terrain. Tandem flights available onsite.
2025 Program Committee

We thank the Program Committee members. Their volunteer service makes this workshop possible.

2024 April 6–7, 2024 · UC San Diego10 papers · Program, papers, recordings and program committee

Saturday, April 6, 2024

  1. Coffee, light breakfast
  2. Designing Quality Certificates: Insights from eBay
    PresenterXiang Hui (WUSTL)DiscussantTommaso Bondi (Cornell)
    Watch on YouTube
  3. A Framework for Detection, Measurement, and Welfare Analysis of Platform Bias
    PresenterImke Reimers (Cornell)DiscussantDante Donati (Columbia)
    Watch on YouTube
  4. Lunch, UCSD Faculty Club
  5. Algorithm Failures and Consumers’ Response: Evidence from Zillow
    PresenterNikhil Malik (USC)DiscussantPuneet Manchanda (Michigan)
    Watch on YouTube
  6. How Do Content Producers Respond to Engagement on Social Media Platforms?
    PresenterSimha Mummalaneni (Washington)DiscussantLinli Xu (Minnesota)
    Watch on YouTube
  7. Refreshments
  8. Dinner, UCSD Faculty Club

Sunday, April 7, 2024

  1. Coffee, light breakfast
  2. Content Generation on Social Media: The Role of Negative Peer Feedback
    PresenterVarad Deolankar (Michigan)DiscussantBrett Hollenbeck (UCLA)
    Watch on YouTube
  3. Lunch, UCSD Faculty Club
  4. Advertiser Learning in Direct Advertising Markets
    PresenterCarl Mela (Duke)DiscussantNils Wernerfelt (Northwestern)
    Watch on YouTube
  5. Attention Spillovers from News to Ads: Evidence from an Eye-Tracking Experiment
    PresenterAndrey Simonov (Columbia)DiscussantCaio Waisman (Northwestern)
    Watch on YouTube
  6. Snacks at the Torrey Pines Gliderport, on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, weather permitting. Tandem flights available at own cost and risk. Note: the cliff terrain is uneven; consider appropriate footwear.
2024 Program Committee

We thank the Program Committee members. Their volunteer service makes this workshop possible.

2023 April 7–8, 2023 · UC San Diego10 papers · Program, papers, recordings and program committee

Friday, April 7, 2023

  1. Online Advertising as Passive Search
    Raluca M. Ursu (NYU), Andrey Simonov (Columbia U.), Eunkyung An (NYU)
    DiscussantJura Liaukonyte (Cornell U.)
    Watch on YouTube
  2. Gratuities in a Digital Services Marketplace
    Seung Hyun Kim (UC San Diego), On Amir (UC San Diego), Kenneth C. Wilbur (UC San Diego)
    DiscussantAvner Strulov-Shlain (U. of Chicago)
    Watch on YouTube
  3. Platform Search Design and Market Power
    H. Tai Lam (UCLA)
    DiscussantGiovanni Compiani (U. of Chicago)
    Watch on YouTube
  4. When to Target Customers? Retention Management using Dynamic Off-Policy Policy Learning
    Ryuya Ko (U. of Tokyo), Kosuke Uetake (Yale U.), Kohei Yata (U. of Wisconsin-Madison), Ryosuke Okada (ZOZO Inc.)
    DiscussantJustin Huang (U. of Michigan)
    Watch on YouTube
  5. Platform Leakage: Incentive Conflicts in Two-Sided Markets
    Yingkang Xie (Northwestern U.), Huaiyu Zhu (Lalamove)
    DiscussantJessica Fong (U. of Michigan)

Saturday, April 8, 2023

  1. Does Machine Learning Amplify Pricing Errors in Housing Market? Economics of ML Feedback Loops
    Nikhil Malik (U. of Southern California), Emaad Manzoor (Cornell U.)
    DiscussantRon Berman (U. of Pennsylvania)
    Watch on YouTube
  2. The Effects of Diversity in Algorithmic Recommendations on Digital Content Consumption: A Field Experiment
    Guangying Chen (Washington U. in St. Louis), Tat Y. Chan (Washington U. in St. Louis), Dennis J. Zhang (Washington U. in St. Louis), Senmao Liu (NetEase Cloud Music Inc.), Yuxiang Wu (NetEase Cloud Music Inc.)
    DiscussantDavid Holtz (UC Berkeley)
    Watch on YouTube
  3. Advertising as Information for Ranking E-Commerce Search Listings
    Joonhyuk Yang (Notre Dame), Navdeep Sahni (Stanford U.), Harikesh Nair (Google), Xi Xiong (TikTok)
    DiscussantFei Long (U. of North Carolina)
    Watch on YouTube
  4. The Impact of Engagement with User-generated Content in Online Discussion Forums
    Varad Deolankar (U. of Michigan), Ali Goli (U. of Washington), S. Sriram (U. of Michigan), Pradeep K. Chintagunta (U. of Chicago)
    DiscussantDavide Proserpio (U. of Southern California)
    Watch on YouTube
  5. The Economics of Content Moderation: Theory and Experimental Evidence from Hate Speech on Twitter
    Rafael Jimenez-Duran (U. of Chicago)
    DiscussantPinar Yildirim (U. of Pennsylvania)
    Watch on YouTube
2023 Program Committee

We thank the Program Committee members. Their volunteer service made this workshop possible.

  • Ron Berman, Assistant Professor, University of Pennsylvania
  • Abhishek Borah, Assistant Professor, INSEAD
  • Jason Choi, Assistant Professor, University of Maryland
  • Avinash Collis, Assistant Professor, University of Texas at Austin
  • Giovanni Compiani, Assistant Professor, University of Chicago
  • Remi Daviet, Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin
  • Dante Donati, Assistant Professor, Columbia University
  • Chiara Farronato, Assistant Professor, Harvard University
  • Jessica Fong, Assistant Professor, University of Michigan
  • Andrey Fradkin, Assistant Professor, Boston University
  • Soheil Ghili, Assistant Professor, Yale University
  • Ali Goli, Assistant Professor, University of Washington
  • Justin Huang, Assistant Professor, University of Michigan
  • Xiang Hui, Assistant Professor, Washington University in St. Louis
  • Rafael Jimenez Duran, Assistant Professor, Bocconi University
  • Mingyu Joo, Assistant Professor, University of California, Riverside
  • Tesary Lin, Assistant Professor, Boston University
  • Jia Liu, Assistant Professor, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
  • Nikhil Malik, Assistant Professor, University of Southern California
  • Emaad Manzoor, Assistant Professor, Cornell University
  • Milan Miric, Assistant Professor, University of Southern California
  • Unnati Narang, Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Zachary Nolan, Assistant Professor, University of Delaware
  • Omid Rafieian, Assistant Professor, Cornell University
  • Oren Reshef, Assistant Professor, Washington University in St. Louis
  • Michelangelo Rossi, Assistant Professor, Télécom Paris, Institut Polytechnique de Paris
  • Andrey Simonov, Assistant Professor, Columbia University
  • Ioannis Stamatopoulos, Associate Professor, University of Texas at Austin
  • Ludovic Stourm, Assistant Professor, HEC Paris
  • Isamar Troncoso, Assistant Professor, Harvard University
  • Kosuke Uetake, Associate Professor, Yale University
  • Prasad Vana, Assistant Professor, Dartmouth University
  • Yan Xu, Assistant Professor, Virginia Tech University
  • Joonhyuk Yang, Assistant Professor, University of Notre Dame
  • Luyi Yang, Assistant Professor, University of California, Berkeley
  • Xu Zhang, Assistant Professor, London Business School
Contact

Organizers and contact

Organizers

Contact

Email Workshoponplatformanalytics, followed by the “at” symbol, and then gmail.com.