The Sound of Silence: Observational Learning in the U.S. Kidney Market

• Published in: Marketing science (Providence, R.I.) Vol. 29; no. 2; pp. 315 - 335
• Main Author: Zhang, Juanjuan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: INFORMS 01.03.2010
• Series: Marketing Science
• Subjects: Bayes' rule; dynamic programming; herding; informational cascades; kidney allocation; learning models; observational learning; quality inference

Mere observation of others' choices can be informative about product quality. This paper develops an individual-level dynamic model of observational learning and applies it to a novel data set from the U.S. kidney market, where transplant candidates on a waiting list sequentially decide whether...