Behavioral design in smartphone apps aims at inducing certain, monetizable behavior, mainly increased engagement, measurable by usage time. Such design is rarely transparent and often restricts users' ability to make alternative choices. In a framed field experiment, we document that behavioral...

Mobile applications for multiple sclerosis (MS) hold growing potential for self-management and remote monitoring. However, research on how they generate value for patients and other stakeholders remains limited. Existing studies emphasize usability or adoption, while overlooking their role...

Firms often choose with whom to compete and how similar or how different their products should be relative to those of their rivals. This paper investigates this issue in the app economy by studying the determinants of mobile app success. We leverage natural language processing and unsupervised...

Millions of parents across Europe use mobile baby-tracking applications. These digital aides generate intimate data sets by accessing sensitive information about (un)born babies, pregnancies, and family caregiving routines. Crucially, the tracking infrastructures embedded in these apps enable...

This paper studies how commission rates affect app entry across platforms. We examine an increase in Android game commission rate from 30% to 50% in China in 2014 and its impact on Android and iOS app stores, separately, in a difference-in-differences framework. We find a direct negative entry...

I study the digital market for attention in a freemium mobile game where users choose between paying with money or by watching 30-second video ads. Using unique event-level data, I estimate consumers' supply elasticity of attention. In the aggregate, a one percent higher price increases the...

I study how third-party firms respond when a platform owner enters its own marketplace, analyzing Apple's entries into App Store submarkets from 2016-2021. Using text embeddings to define markets and a staggered difference-in-differences design, I find that Apple's entry deters new competitors...