Mediated talk: An experiment
成果类型：
Article
署名作者：
Blume, Andreas; Lai, Ernest K.; Lim, Wooyoung
署名单位：
University of Arizona; Lehigh University; Hong Kong University of Science & Technology
刊物名称：
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY
ISSN/ISSBN：
0022-0531
DOI：
10.1016/j.jet.2022.105593
发表日期：
2023
关键词：
摘要：
We experimentally compare mediated (cheap) talk with direct (cheap) talk. Theory, guided by a char-acterization of equilibria in both environments, suggests that mediated talk has the potential to improve information sharing and welfare relative to direct talk. We sharpen the theory prediction by invoking Craw-ford's (2003) language-anchored level-k analysis. In the experiment, we find that mediated talk can indeed facilitate information transmission. We also find, however, that this requires that the language employed conforms with the mediation mechanism: mediation mechanisms improve information sharing for a variety of conforming languages, but fail to do so with a nonconforming language. These experimental findings match the predictions from the language-anchored level-k analysis. Strikingly, this is the case even when a whole array of alternative selection criteria (including iterative deletion of dominated strategies, strict equilibrium, Pareto efficiency, etc.) make a unique common prediction that sharply disagrees with the language-anchored level-k prediction.(c) 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.