BUDT756

Organizations and policymakers in government constantly grapple with such causal questions. For example, firms want to know how does a price change affect the sales of a product, or how to design websites and platforms that increase consumer engagement and lead generation; political parties want to know what on social media sites can boost their political influence, and governments want to know whether allowing parents to pay for private schools using publicly funded vouchers make the education system more effective. In particular, platforms such as Netflix, Airbnb, eBay, Groupon, Booking.com, Uber, Amazon, etc. make extensive and continuous use of A/B tests and have a dedicated team of data scientists and IT-personnel to implement, monitor and analyze such tests. Banks and Insurance companies constitute another important sector where the use of A/B testing is ubiquitous.