Censorship as optimal persuasion

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Kolotilin, Anton; Mylovanov, Timofiy; Zapechelnyuk, Andriy
• 署名单位: University of New South Wales Sydney; Pennsylvania Commonwealth System of Higher Education (PCSHE); University of Pittsburgh; University of St Andrews
• 刊物名称: THEORETICAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1933-6837
• DOI: 10.3982/TE4071
• 发表日期: 2022-05-01
• 页码: 561-585
• 关键词: Bayesian persuasion; information design; CENSORSHIP; media; D82; D83; L82

摘要

We consider a Bayesian persuasion problem where a sender's utility depends only on the expected state. We show that upper censorship that pools the states above a cutoff and reveals the states below the cutoff is optimal for all prior distributions of the state if and only if the sender's marginal utility is quasi-concave. Moreover, we show that it is optimal to reveal less information if the sender becomes more risk averse or the sender's utility shifts to the left. Finally, we apply our results to the problem of media censorship by a government.