Coordination motives and competition for attention in information markets

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Galperti, Simone; Trevino, Isabel
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California San Diego; University of California System; University of California San Diego
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0531
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jet.2020.105039
• 发表日期: 2020
• 关键词: Information supply; payoff interdependence; attention; accuracy; Clarity; Market inefficiency

摘要

People seek to learn about world events, but often also what others know about those events-for instance, to coordinate their actions. News sources rely on monetizing people's attention to thrive in the market. We find that competition for attention leads to a homogeneous supply of information: News sources are equally accurate in reporting events and equally clear in conveying their reports. This occurs even though people would demand different accuracies and clarities. The type of supplied sources depends on a subtle interaction between the cost structure of producing information and people's coordination motives. We also find that by becoming the currency whereby people pay for information, attention causes novel market inefficiencies, whose form and size depend on people's coordination motives. We investigate supply-side policies tackling such inefficiencies. (C) 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.