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作者:Cusumano, Carlo M.; Fabbri, Francesco; Pieroth, Ferdinand
作者单位:Yale University; Princeton University
摘要:Two homogeneous -good firms compete for a consumer's unitary demand. The consumer is rationally inattentive and pays entropy costs to process information about firms' offers. Compared to a collusion benchmark, competition produces two effects. As in standard models, competition puts downward pressure on prices. But, additionally, an attention effect arises: the consumer engages in trade more often. This alleviates the commitment problem that firms have when facing inattentive consumers and inc...
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作者:Narasimhan, Veda; Weaver, Jeffrey
作者单位:New York University; New York University Abu Dhabi; University of Southern California
摘要:Developing countries have increasingly decentralized power to local governments. This paper studies the implications of a central element of decentralization (polity size) using population-based discontinuities that determine local government boundaries for over 100,000 Indian villages. Over the short and long run, individuals allocated into local governments with smaller populations have better access to public goods. We provide suggestive evidence that these results are related to heightened...
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作者:Yang, Kai Hao; Zentefis, Alexander K.
作者单位:Yale University
摘要:A monotone function interval is the set of monotone functions that lie pointwise between two fixed monotone functions. We characterize the set of extreme points of monotone function intervals and apply this to a number of economic settings. First, , we leverage the main result to characterize the set of distributions of posterior quantiles that can be induced by a signal, , with applications to political economy, , Bayesian persuasion, , and the psychology of judgment. Second, , we combine our...
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作者:Bobkova, Nina
作者单位:Rice University
摘要:The choice of an auction mechanism influences which object characteristics bidders learn about and whether the object is allocated efficiently. Some object characteristics are valued equally by all bidders and thus are inconsequential for the efficient allocation. Others matter only to certain bidders and thus determine the bidder with the highest valuation. I show when the second-price auction is ex ante efficient by inducing bidders to seek socially relevant information. When facing a contin...
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作者:Clark, Robert; Horstmann, Ig; Houde, Jean-Francois
作者单位:Queens University - Canada; University of Toronto; University of Wisconsin System; University of Wisconsin Madison; National Bureau of Economic Research
摘要:Numerous recently uncovered cartels operated along the supply chain, with firms at one end facilitating collusion at the otherhub -and -spoke arrangements. These cartels are hard to rationalize because they induce double marginalization and higher costs. We examine Canada's alleged bread cartel and provide the first comprehensive analysis of hub -and -spoke collusion. Using court documents and pricing data, we make three contributions: (i) we show that collusion was effective, increasing infla...
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作者:Auster, Sarah; Che, Yeon-Koo; Mierendorff, Konrad
作者单位:University of Bonn; Columbia University; University of London; University College London
摘要:This paper studies sequential information acquisition by an ambiguity -averse decision -maker (DM), who decides how long to collect information before taking an irreversible action. The agent optimizes against the worst -case belief and updates prior by prior. We show that the consideration of ambiguity gives rise to rich dynamics: compared to the Bayesian DM, the DM here tends to experiment excessively when facing modest uncertainty and, to counteract it, may stop experimenting prematurely wh...
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作者:Alan, Sule; Mumcu, Ipek
作者单位:European University Institute; Ihsan Dogramaci Bilkent University; University of Exeter
摘要:We evaluate a pedagogical intervention aimed at improving learning in elementary school children by fostering their curiosity. We test the effectiveness of the pedagogy using achievement scores and a novel measure of curiosity. The latter involves creating a sense of information deprivation and quantifying the urge to acquire information and retention ability. The intervention increases curiosity, knowledge retention, and science test scores, with the effects persisting into middle school year...
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作者:Atal, Juan pablo; Cuesta, Jost Ignacio; Gonzalez, Felipe; Otero, Cristobal
作者单位:University of Pennsylvania; Stanford University; National Bureau of Economic Research; University of London; Queen Mary University London
摘要:We study the effects of competition by state-owned firms, leveraging the decentralized entry of public pharmacies to local markets in Chile. Public pharmacies sell the same drugs at a third of private pharmacy prices, because of stronger upstream bargaining and market power in the private sector, but are of lower quality. Public pharmacies induced market segmentation and price increases in the private sector, which benefited the switchers to the public option but harmed the stayers. The countr...
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作者:Esponda, Ignacio; Vespa, Emanuel; Yuksel, Sevgi
作者单位:University of California System; University of California Santa Barbara; University of California System; University of California San Diego
摘要:We experimentally document persistence of suboptimal behavior despite ample opportunities to learn from feedback in a canonical updating problem where people suffer from base -rate neglect. Our results provide insights on the mechanisms hindering learning from feedback. Importantly, our results suggest mistakes are more likely to be persistent when they are driven by incorrect mental models that miss or misrepresent important aspects of the environment. Such models induce confidence in initial...
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作者:Aguiar, Mark; Amador, Manuel; Arellano, Cristina
作者单位:Princeton University; National Bureau of Economic Research; University of Minnesota System; University of Minnesota Twin Cities; Federal Reserve System - USA; Federal Reserve Bank - Minneapolis
摘要:We provide conditions for the feasibility of robust Pareto-improving (RPI) policies when markets are incomplete and the interest rate is below the growth rate. We allow for arbitrary heterogeneity in preferences and income risk and a wedge between the return to capital and bonds. An RPI improves risk sharing and can induce a more efficient level of capital. Elasticities of aggregate savings to changes in interest rates are the crucial ingredients to the feasibility of RPIs. Government debt may...