Experimental Cost of Informations

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Denti, Tommaso; Marinacci, Massimo; Rustichini, Aldo
• 署名单位: Cornell University; Bocconi University; Bocconi University; University of Minnesota System; University of Minnesota Twin Cities
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20210879
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 3106-3123
• 关键词: Inattention

摘要

We relate two main representations of the cost of acquiring information: a cost that depends on the experiment performed, as in statistical decision theory, and a cost that depends on the distribution of posterior beliefs, as in applications of rational inattention. We show that in many cases of interest, posterior-based costs are inconsistent with a primitive model of costly experimentation. The inconsistency is at the core of known limits to the application of rational inattention in games and, more broadly, in equilibrium analyses where beliefs are endogenous; we show that an experiment-based approach helps to understand and overcome these difficulties.