【Job talk】The self-selection of information and the belief update: An experiment on COVID-19 vaccine information
2024/01/04
研討會日期 : 2024-01-04
時間 : 10:45
主講人 : Mr. Chien-Hsun Lin (林建勳)
地點 : Conference Room B110
主持人 : Professor Yating Chuang
演講者簡介 : Mr. Lin is expected to receive his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2024. His research fields are Experimental and Behavioral Economics, Applied Microeconomic Theory, and Political Economy. He is applying for a position of the Institute of Economics, Academia Sinica now.
演講摘要 : Rational information acquisition theory predicts people select the information that is more informative, thus people's beliefs will be more persuaded by the information they select. We test the prediction in a critical real-world context—information about COVID-19 vaccines. We conduct an online experiment in Taiwan where the subjects select information about COVID-19 vaccines, and then the subjects update their beliefs about the vaccine effectiveness and preferences of vaccines. As our design distinguishes different stages of the rational acquisition framework, it allows us to diagnose the underlying mechanism of the theory. Our empirical findings demonstrate evidence that people's information acquisition generally coheres with the rational theory framework predictions, that is, people choose information when the information is more likely to alter their decisions. We show that our subjects' beliefs change more when they see the information they select. We also find evidence of change in vaccine choices after they receive the information they select, which further suggests that the subjects follow the rational information acquisition framework.
