AI Business LensTHE BUSINESS OF AI, FOR PEOPLE WHO TEACH IT OR LEARN FROM IT
NBER Working Papers · October 7, 2026 · On the brief until October 21, 2026

Aligning Platform and User Incentives in Social Media Age Restrictions -- by Leonardo Bursztyn, Rafael Jiménez-Durán, Aaron Leonard, Filip Milojević, Christopher Roth

EconomicsPublic PolicyMedia Studies
THE AI ANGLE
Powering algorithmic feeds subject to removal

Economists modeled an alternative to teenage social media bans by evaluating a safe tier that removes algorithmic feeds while keeping peer networks intact. The design allows platforms to retain younger users at lower margins while teens face less peer pressure to evade restrictions. This model provides policy analysts with a framework to study market incentives instead of outright access bans.

Summary written by AI Business Lens with an AI model from the article at nber.org. It is not the article, and the publisher has not reviewed it. For publishers.

THE TEACHING ANGLE
Students can debate whether preserving network connections without algorithmic feeds resolves the tension between corporate profits and youth welfare.

Read the original at nber.org   Generate teaching or study materials

Instructors get discussion guides, assignments, and mini-cases. Students and readers get a plain summary, points to raise, an exercise, and a self-check. All built from the full article. A free account saves stories and gives you three generations. Stories stay on the brief for 14 days. After that this page keeps the link to the original.

More in Economics