creator economy

We study the consequences of reported social misconduct for YouTube creators. Using a staggered difference-in-differences approach, we find that YouTube channels of creators who are found to have misconducted themselves experience significant drops in both subscription and viewership. Such drops translate to economically significant financial losses ranging from $4,734 to $8,233 per month per channel. We find that the effects are similar for channels that feature products and those that do not, and that the effects are more pronounced for channels whose creators can be visually identified. These consequences of social misconduct can be attributed to loss of customer trust, which we show can be partially mitigated by means of credible online apologies.

Professor Garg’s research uses economic and statistical techniques to analyze information flow in digital platforms and networked structures. More specifically, Professor Garg’s research spans following four broad areas: 1) diffusion of digital content across networks, 2) digital marketing strategies for social and mobile commerce, 3) role of digital technologies in labor markets and entrepreneurship, and 4) identification of business value of data streams generated by digital technologies (blockchain, NFT, IoT, AR/VR, etc.). Professor Garg’s research has appeared in academic journals like Management Science, MIS Quarterly (MISQ), Information Systems Research (ISR), Production and Operations Management (POM), Journal of Management Information Systems (JMIS), and various other journals and peer reviewed conference proceedings. His work has received media coverage in Forbes, Fortune, Austin Statesman, Dallas Morning News, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Medium, and more. For his contributions to the field of technology and engineering, Professor Garg was nominated and named a senior member of IEEE.