演講者簡介 : Professor Andriy Zapechelnyuk received his PhD from Stony Brook University in 2005. He is a Professor of Economics at the University of Edinburgh. His research interests lie in the field of microeconomic theory and applications, focusing on communication and information design, optimal contracts, and robust decision theory.
演講摘要 : We propose a new framework of costly information processing. A decision maker processes information about an uncertain state of nature by a procedure called inquiry. An inquiry starts with an initial question about the state, specifies subsequent questions depending on earlier answers, and, eventually, prescribes decisions. The decision maker bears a cost proportional to the length of inquiry. Thus, more refined information is costlier. We characterize optimal inquiries and show their dynamic consistency. We also expose two behavioural biases of optimal inquiry: focused attention (the decision maker focuses on a subset of decisions and assigns them different priorities) and confirmation bias (the decision maker seeks evidence through inquiry to confirm her prior guess of which decisions are optimal).
