Engineering Online Markets

This class will explore topics the intersection of operations, engineering, and economics relevant to modern internet marketplaces, including those for dating, labor, accommodation, services, and rides. The objective of the class is to introduce and revisit technical tools traditionally used in the operations literature that may help advance the research frontier, as well as to expose students to recent developments and state-of-the-art research in online markets. The class will not cover the important and heavily studied topics of stable marriage and auctions. List of topics (preliminary): Intro to two-sided platforms and search frictions in matching markets; Design of the "search environment" and information disclosure policies on platforms; Balancing supply and demand in a spatio-temporal environment; Pricing issues in platforms; Service platforms; Reputation systems.