Rational inattention with multiple attributes

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Walker-Jones, David
• 署名单位: University of Surrey
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0531
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jet.2023.105688
• 发表日期: 2023
• 关键词: rational inattention; Perceptual distance; Costly learning; Shannon entropy

摘要

This paper studies a new measure for the cost of learning that allows the different attributes of the options faced by an agent to differ in their associated learning costs. The new measure maintains the tractability of Shannon's classic measure but produces richer choice predictions and identifies a new form of informational bias significant for welfare and counterfactual analysis that is conducted with the multinomial logit model. Necessary and sufficient conditions are provided for optimal agent behavior under the new measure for the cost of learning.& COPY; 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons .org /licenses /by /4 .0/).