The Cost of Information: The Case of Constant Marginal Costs

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Pomatto, Luciano; Strack, Philipp; Tamuz, Omer
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20190185
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 1360-1393
• 关键词: rational inattention; FOUNDATIONS

摘要

We develop an axiomatic theory of information acquisition that cap-tures the idea of constant marginal costs in information production: the cost of generating two independent signals is the sum of their costs, and generating a signal with probability half costs half its original cost. Together with Blackwell monotonicity and a continuity condition, these axioms determine the cost of a signal up to a vector of param-eters. These parameters have a clear economic interpretation and determine the difficulty of distinguishing states.