Social Learning Through Endogenous Information Acquisition: An Experiment

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Celen, Bogachan; Hyndman, Kyle
• 署名单位: Columbia University; Maastricht University
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.1110.1506
• 发表日期: 2012
• 页码: 1525-1548
• 关键词: Social learning; information acquisition; link formation; Herd behavior

摘要

This paper provides a test of a theory of social learning through endogenous information acquisition. A group of subjects face a decision problem under uncertainty. Subjects are endowed with private information about the fundamentals of the problem and make decisions sequentially. The key feature of the experiment is that subjects can observe the decisions of predecessors by forming links at a cost. The model predicts that the average welfare is enhanced in the presence of a small cost. Our experimental results support this prediction. When the informativeness of signals changes across treatments, behavior changes in accordance with the theory. However, within treatments, there are important deviations from rationality such as a tendency to conform and excessive link formation. Given these biases, our results indicate that subjects would, except when faced with a small cost, have been better off not forming any links.