Posterior Separable Cost of Information

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Denti, Tommaso
• 署名单位: Cornell University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20211252
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 3215-3259
• 关键词: rational inattention; COORDINATION; acquisition; CHOICE

摘要

e provide testable conditions under which the cost of acquir-ing information is given by the expected reduction of a measure of uncertainty (e.g., entropy). The assumption, under the name of pos-terior separability, is nearly universal in the literature of rational inattention; yet, a testable characterization has been lacking. In applications to experimental data, we indicate situations in which posterior separability is & mdash;and is not & mdash;a compelling assumption for the cost of information; we propose a generalization to address some of its shortcomings. We also show how to identify and estimate nonparametrically the cost of information from observable choice behavior