Adventures in Demand Analysis Using AI

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Bach, Philipp, Chernozhukov, Victor, Klaassen, Sven, Spindler, Martin, Teichert-Kluge, Jan, Vijaykumar, Suhas
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Bach, Philipp
Chernozhukov, Victor
Klaassen, Sven
Spindler, Martin
Teichert-Kluge, Jan
Vijaykumar, Suhas
author_facet Bach, Philipp
Chernozhukov, Victor
Klaassen, Sven
Spindler, Martin
Teichert-Kluge, Jan
Vijaykumar, Suhas
contents This paper advances empirical demand analysis by integrating multimodal product representations derived from artificial intelligence (AI). Using a detailed dataset of toy cars on textit{Amazon.com}, we combine text descriptions, images, and tabular covariates to represent each product using transformer-based embedding models. These embeddings capture nuanced attributes, such as quality, branding, and visual characteristics, that traditional methods often struggle to summarize. Moreover, we fine-tune these embeddings for causal inference tasks. We show that the resulting embeddings substantially improve the predictive accuracy of sales ranks and prices and that they lead to more credible causal estimates of price elasticity. Notably, we uncover strong heterogeneity in price elasticity driven by these product-specific features. Our findings illustrate that AI-driven representations can enrich and modernize empirical demand analysis. The insights generated may also prove valuable for applied causal inference more broadly.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_00382
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Adventures in Demand Analysis Using AI
Bach, Philipp
Chernozhukov, Victor
Klaassen, Sven
Spindler, Martin
Teichert-Kluge, Jan
Vijaykumar, Suhas
General Economics
Economics
Artificial Intelligence
Applications
Machine Learning
This paper advances empirical demand analysis by integrating multimodal product representations derived from artificial intelligence (AI). Using a detailed dataset of toy cars on textit{Amazon.com}, we combine text descriptions, images, and tabular covariates to represent each product using transformer-based embedding models. These embeddings capture nuanced attributes, such as quality, branding, and visual characteristics, that traditional methods often struggle to summarize. Moreover, we fine-tune these embeddings for causal inference tasks. We show that the resulting embeddings substantially improve the predictive accuracy of sales ranks and prices and that they lead to more credible causal estimates of price elasticity. Notably, we uncover strong heterogeneity in price elasticity driven by these product-specific features. Our findings illustrate that AI-driven representations can enrich and modernize empirical demand analysis. The insights generated may also prove valuable for applied causal inference more broadly.
title Adventures in Demand Analysis Using AI
topic General Economics
Economics
Artificial Intelligence
Applications
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.00382