How do financial markets acquire information about upcoming monetary policy decisions, beyond their reaction to central bank signals? This paper hypothesises that sharing information among investors can improve expectations, especially in the presence of disagreement or uncertainty about the...

We develop a theory of conversations. Two agents with different interests take turns choosing the topic of the conversation. Talking about a single topic allows them to delve deeper, making the conversation more informative (or enjoyable). To capture this dynamic, we assume that the marginal...

We provide the first causal evidence of discrimination against migrants seeking child care. We send emails from fictitious parents to 18, 000 early child care centers across Germany, asking if there is a slot available and how to apply. Randomly varying names to signal migration background, we...

This paper studies an information intervention designed and implemented in the context of a school assignment mechanism in Mexico City. We find that providing students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds with feedback about their academic performance contributes to placing...

We study whether a better knowledge of the functioning of pay-as-you-go pension systems and recent demographic trends in the hosting country affects natives’ attitudes towards immigration. In two online experiments in Italy and Spain, we randomly treated participants with a video explaining...

Received wisdom holds that income rank matters for life satisfaction. In much of the literature, however, income comparisons are limited to the national population and evidence is correlational. In this paper, we investigate differences in the causal effects of rank information across reference...

The relationship between social status and ethical behavior is a widely debated topic in research. In their study, Gsottbauer et al. (2022b) investigate whether higher socio-economic status is linked to lower ethical behavior, using data from two large survey experiments involving over 11,000...

We provide the first causal evidence of discrimination against migrants seeking child care. We send emails from fictitious parents to 18, 000 early child care centers across Germany, asking if there is a slot available and how to apply. Randomly varying names to signal migration background, we...

We provide the first causal evidence of discrimination against migrants seeking child care. We send emails from fictitious parents to 18, 000 early child care centers across Germany, asking if there is a slot available and how to apply. Randomly varying names to signal migration background, we...

We provide the first causal evidence of discrimination against migrants seeking child care. We send emails from fictitious parents to 18, 000 early child care centers across Germany, asking if there is a slot available and how to apply. Randomly varying names to signal migration background, we...

The relationship between social status and ethical behavior is a widely debated topic in research. In their study, Gsottbauer et al. (2022b) investigate whether higher socio-economic status is linked to lower ethical behavior, using data from two large survey experiments involving over 11,000...

We study whether a better knowledge of the functioning of pay-as-you-go pension systems and recent demographic trends in the hosting country affects natives' attitudes towards immigration. In two online experiments in Italy and Spain, we randomly treated participants with a video explaining how,...

We provide the first causal evidence of discrimination against migrants seeking child care. We send emails from fictitious parents to 18, 000 early child care centers across Germany, asking if there is a slot available and how to apply. Randomly varying names to signal migration background, we...

We conduct a survey experiment on the effect of information provision on attitudes towards immigration in Germany. The focus lies on two theory-based economic channels, labor market and welfare state concerns, and immigration policy preferences. Using probability-based representative survey...

In the face of capacity disruptions (due, for example, to traffic incidents or poor weather), information provision and congestion pricing are alternative alleviating policies. A state-dependent toll equals the state-dependent marginal external cost (MEC), which is higher if traffic condition is...

Radon exposure in homes is a leading cause of lung cancer, but the rate at which householders test for it is low. In a pre-registered experiment with a nationally representative sample of adults (N = 1,700), we used psychological theory to design interventions to increase perceived risk from...

Demographic change has an impact on pay-as-you-go pension systems. To maintain their financial sustainability, reforms are necessary, but often lack public support. Based on representative survey data from Germany, we conduct a survey experiment which allows investigating whether salience of or...

This paper studies the causal effect of providing information about climate changeon individuals’ willingness to pay to offset carbon emissions in a randomizedcontrol trial. Receiving truthful information about ways to reduce CO2 emis-sions increases individuals’ willingness to pay for CO2...

I develop a theory of intermediation in a market where agents meet bilaterally to trade and buyers cannot commit to payments. Some agents observe the past trading history of traders in the market. These informed agents can secure trades by punishing traders who previously defaulted. The...

This paper studies static rational inattention problems with multiple actions and multiple shocks. We solve for the optimal signals chosen by agents and provide tools to interpret information processing. By relaxing restrictive assumptions previously used to gain tractability, we allow agents...

In the face of capacity disruptions (due, for example, to traffic incidents or poor weather), information provision and congestion pricing are alternative alleviating policies. A state-dependent toll equals the state-dependent marginal external cost (MEC), which is higher if traffic condition is...

Although short message services (SMS) are constantly used to transmit information, little is known about the use of SMS by public institutions to direct people. This paper presents a field experiment in France about the effectiveness of SMS in directing disadvantaged people toward public...

Radon exposure in homes is a leading cause of lung cancer, but the rate at which householders test for it is low. In a pre-registered experiment with a nationally representative sample of adults (N = 1,700), we used psychological theory to design interventions to increase perceived risk from...

We studied the impact of distributing nutritional information in the conditional cash transfer program on intrahousehold food expenditure allocation in the Philippines. Using the original randomized controlled trials dataset, which was collected 2 months after a social experiment to teach...

To study the effect of congestion on the fundamental trade-off between diagnostic accuracy and speed, we empirically test the predictions of a formal sequential testing model in a setting where the gathering of additional information can improve diagnostic accuracy, but may also take time and...

Policy makers put great emphasis on the role of information about carbon emissions in achieving sustainable decisions by consumers. We conduct two studies to understand the optimal targeting of such information and its effects. First, we conduct an incentivized and representative survey among US...

Demographic change has an impact on pay-as-you-go pension systems. To maintain their financial sustainability, reforms are necessary, but often lack public support. Based on representative survey data from Germany, we conduct a survey experiment which allows investigating whether salience of or...

This paper shows that a transaction tax makes trades in decentralized markets more information sensitive and enlarges the range of information costs for which the equilibrium exhibits private information acquisition and endogenous adverse selection. A transaction tax reduces the probability of...

We conduct an experiment with a representative sample from the US to study households' demand for macroeconomic information. Respondents who learn of a higher personal exposure to unemployment risk during recessions increase their demand for an expert forecast about the likelihood of a...

We present an equilibrium model where the demand side of the market determines the strategic incentives of firms when considering the introduction of technologically superior products (TSPs) and the subsequent dynamic evolution of the market configuration. Market demand is built on conventional...

We conduct a field experiment on a movie-recommendation platform to identify if and how recommendations affect consumption. We use within-consumer randomization at the good level and elicit beliefs about unconsumed goods to disentangle exposure from informational effects. We find recommendations...

We formulate a structural model of search with lender and borrower heterogeneity to estimate the value of information provided to UK households by mortgage brokers. Using administrative data on loans originating in 2016 and 2017, we document the existence of a substantial degree of unexplained...

I study costly information acquisition by multiple decision-makers facing a strategic environment. First, each agent chooses an arbitrary \textit{signal} that provides information about an unknown state of nature. Each player incurs a cost that is increasing in the \textit{informativeness} of...

We study a manufacturer's encroachment choice when the retailer's decision to acquire and analyze demand information is costly. Notably, we explicitly take into account that the manufacturer might set such a high wholesale price that the retailer shuts down the indirect channel if demand turns...

We study the interaction between the inefficiency in the acquisition of private information and trading in financial markets. We show that, as the cost of information declines, traders over-invest in information acquisition and trade too much on their private information. We also show that,...