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讲座题目：When Historical Prices Become Transparent, Must Consumers Be Better Off?（当历史价格变得透明时，消费者一定会得到更好的待遇吗？）

主讲人：李曦 香港大学 教授

时间：2025年05月20日10:00

地点：学院319

内容摘要：

When Historical Prices Become Transparent, Must Consumers Be Better Off?

No. Consider a seller selling a product to consumers over time. Consumers are uncertain about the quality of the product and rely on past product reviews to make inferences about it. A positive review may result from either a high product quality or a low product price. When consumers cannot observe historical prices, they are unable to tell apart a high product quality from a low product price, which gives the seller an opportunistic incentive to distort its prices downward to boost its product review and, subsequently, late-arriving consumers' perception of product quality. When consumers observe historical prices, however, they can discern these two dimensions and make correct inferences about product quality, and the seller's opportunistic incentive disappears. As such, information about historical prices drives up product prices which may hurt consumers. Collectively, this study underscores the unintended consequences of disclosing historical product prices.

当历史价格变得透明时，消费者一定会得到更好的待遇吗？不。考虑一下卖方长期向消费者销售产品的情况。消费者对产品质量并不确定，他们依靠过去对产品的评价来推断产品质量。好评可能来自产品质量高或产品价格低。当消费者无法观察到历史价格时，他们就无法区分产品质量高和产品价格低，这就给了卖方机会主义的动机，使其向下扭曲价格，以提高其产品评论，从而提高晚到消费者对产品质量的感知。然而，当消费者观察到历史价格时，他们就能分辨出这两个维度，并对产品质量做出正确的推断，卖方的机会主义动机也就消失了。因此，历史价格信息会推高产品价格，从而损害消费者利益。总之，本研究强调了披露产品历史价格的意外后果。

主讲人简介：

李曦，香港大学市场营销和创新与信息管理系教授。研究重点是算法的经济分析，利用经济学和机器学习方法来理解人工智能、推荐系统、数据驱动算法、密码学和算法定价等信息技术如何影响企业、消费者和社会。他还对数字时代的消费者保护感兴趣。研究发表在Marketing Science, Management Science, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, MSOM, POMS等学术期刊。2021年被选为Marketing Science Young Scholar。2024年获得美国市场营销协会 “顶级营销期刊作者生产力 50 强”。