Belief updating and the demand for information

B-Tier
Journal: Games and Economic Behavior
Year: 2018
Volume: 109
Issue: C
Pages: 21-39

Authors (2)

Ambuehl, Sandro (not in RePEc) Li, Shengwu (Harvard University)

Score contribution per author:

1.005 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

How do individuals value noisy information that guides economic decisions? In our laboratory experiment, we find that individuals underreact to increasing the informativeness of a signal, thus undervalue high-quality information, and that they disproportionately prefer information that may yield certainty. Both biases appear to be mainly due to non-standard belief updating. We find that individuals differ consistently in their responsiveness to information – the extent that their beliefs move upon observing signals. Individual parameters of responsiveness to information have explanatory power in two distinct choice environments and are unrelated to proxies for mathematical aptitude.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:gamebe:v:109:y:2018:i:c:p:21-39
Journal Field
Theory
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-24