Exploring horizontal and vertical interactions within an online advertising supply chain

This dissertation consists of highly related three essays on estimating and exploiting the effect of complementarities or synergies between advertising channels within an online advertising ecosystem. The first essay studies how the recognition of complementarities between different channels in the supply chain and sharing information among players can lead to dramatic increases in profitability and scale of operations. Using a naturally occurring experiment, the second essay investigates the impact of decision making structure (centralized vs. decentralized decision-making) on the decision maker's ability to exploit the synergy effects between advertising channels. Lastly, the third essay explores through simulation the challenges involved in estimating complementarities from a structural econometric model based on the researcher's knowledge of whether the decision makers actually incorporate such effects in their decisions.