IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kea/keappr/ker-20220101-38-1-07.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Information Inequality and the Role of Public Information

Author

Listed:
  • Jin Yeub Kim

    (Yonsei University)

  • Myungkyu Shim

    (Yonsei University)

Abstract

Transparent disclosures of public information might be one natural policy to reduce information inequality among individuals. We conduct a welfare analysis of such policy by introducing ex-ante heterogeneity in individuals’ private information in a class of economies with dispersed information and strategic complementarity or substitutability. We find that better private information for already privately better-informed individuals increases welfare, even though it may be accompanied by greater information inequality. We also show that the better the private information for the already better-informed individuals, the more likely that increasing precision of public information reduces welfare. Our findings suggest caution in making information policies that aim to narrow informational gap with better public information.

Suggested Citation

  • Jin Yeub Kim & Myungkyu Shim, 2022. "Information Inequality and the Role of Public Information," Korean Economic Review, Korean Economic Association, vol. 38, pages 207-230.
  • Handle: RePEc:kea:keappr:ker-20220101-38-1-07
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://keapaper.kea.ne.kr/RePEc/kea/keappr/KER-20220101-38-1-07.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. George-Marios Angeletos & Alessandro Pavan, 2004. "Transparency of Information and Coordination in Economies with Investment Complementarities," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(2), pages 91-98, May.
    2. Manuel Amador & Pierre-Olivier Weill, 2010. "Learning from Prices: Public Communication and Welfare," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 118(5), pages 866-907.
    3. Goldstein, Itay & Yang, Liyan, 2019. "Good disclosure, bad disclosure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(1), pages 118-138.
    4. James, Jonathan G. & Lawler, Phillip, 2008. "Aggregate demand shocks, private signals and employment variability: Can better information be harmful?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 100(1), pages 101-104, July.
    5. George-Marios Angeletos & Alessandro Pavan, 2007. "Efficient Use of Information and Social Value of Information," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 75(4), pages 1103-1142, July.
    6. Jonathan G. James & Phillip Lawler, 2011. "Optimal Policy Intervention and the Social Value of Public Information," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(4), pages 1561-1574, June.
    7. Luca Colombo & Gianluca Femminis & Alessandro Pavan, 2014. "Information Acquisition and Welfare," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 81(4), pages 1438-1483.
    8. Kim Jin Yeub & Shim Myungkyu, 2019. "Forecast Dispersion in Finite-Player Forecasting Games," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 19(1), pages 1-6, January.
    9. Young Se Kim & Byeongdeuk Jang, 2015. "Dispersion of Inflation Expectations: Stylized Facts, Puzzles, and Macroeconomic Implications," Korean Economic Review, Korean Economic Association, vol. 31, pages 89-119.
    10. Ui, Takashi & 宇井, 貴志, 2014. "The Social Value of Public Information with Convex Costs of Information Acquisition," Discussion Papers 2014-05, Graduate School of Economics, Hitotsubashi University.
    11. Stephen Morris & Hyun Song Shin, 2002. "Social Value of Public Information," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1521-1534, December.
    12. James, Jonathan G. & Lawler, Phillip, 2012. "Heterogeneous information quality; strategic complementarities and optimal policy design," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 83(3), pages 342-352.
    13. Ui, Takashi, 2014. "The social value of public information with convex costs of information acquisition," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 125(2), pages 249-252.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Arato, Hiroki & Hori, Takeo & Nakamura, Tomoya, 2021. "Endogenous information acquisition and the partial announcement policy," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    2. Ui, Takashi & Yoshizawa, Yasunori, 2015. "Characterizing social value of information," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 158(PB), pages 507-535.
    3. Takashi Ui, 2022. "Optimal and Robust Disclosure of Public Information," Papers 2203.16809, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2022.
    4. Ruiz-Buforn, Alba & Camacho-Cuena, Eva & Morone, Andrea & Alfarano, Simone, 2021. "Overweighting of public information in financial markets: A lesson from the lab," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    5. Takashi Ui, 2022. "Impacts of Public Information on Flexible Information Acquisition," Papers 2204.09250, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2022.
    6. Takashi Ui, 2022. "Optimal and Robust Disclosure of Public Information," Working Papers on Central Bank Communication 039, University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Economics.
    7. Goldstein, Itay & Yang, Liyan, 2019. "Good disclosure, bad disclosure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(1), pages 118-138.
    8. Colombo, Luca & Femminis, Gianluca, 2014. "Optimal policy intervention, constrained obfuscation and the social value of public information," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 123(2), pages 224-226.
    9. Mäkinen, Taneli & Ohl, Björn, 2015. "Information acquisition and learning from prices over the business cycle," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 158(PB), pages 585-633.
    10. Ui, Takashi & 宇井, 貴志, 2014. "The Social Value of Public Information with Convex Costs of Information Acquisition," Discussion Papers 2014-05, Graduate School of Economics, Hitotsubashi University.
    11. Angeletos, G.-M. & Lian, C., 2016. "Incomplete Information in Macroeconomics," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & Harald Uhlig (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1065-1240, Elsevier.
    12. Han, Bing & Tang, Ya & Yang, Liyan, 2016. "Public information and uninformed trading: Implications for market liquidity and price efficiency," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 604-643.
    13. Gaetano Gaballo, 2016. "Rational Inattention to News: The Perils of Forward Guidance," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 42-97, January.
    14. Femminis, Gianluca & Piccirilli, Giulio, 2021. "Efficient information acquisition with heterogeneous agents," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    15. Ui, Takashi, 2014. "The social value of public information with convex costs of information acquisition," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 125(2), pages 249-252.
    16. Jonathan G. James & Phillip Lawler, 2012. "Strategic Complementarity, Stabilization Policy, and the Optimal Degree of Publicity," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 44(4), pages 551-572, June.
    17. Drenik, Andrés & Perez, Diego J., 2020. "Price setting under uncertainty about inflation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 23-38.
    18. Thomas Lustenberger & Enzo Rossi, 2022. "The Social Value of Information: A Test of a Beauty and Nonbeauty Contest," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 54(7), pages 2125-2148, October.
    19. Meixing Dai & Moïse Sidiropoulos, 2017. "How multiplicative uncertainty affects the tradeoff between information disclosure and stabilisation policy?," Working Papers of BETA 2017-15, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    20. Romain Baeriswyl & Camille Cornand & Bruno Ziliotto, 2020. "Observing and Shaping the Market: The Dilemma of Central Banks," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 52(8), pages 1973-2005, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Information Inequality; Public Information; Disclosure; Welfare; Coordination;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies
    • E61 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Policy Objectives; Policy Designs and Consistency; Policy Coordination

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kea:keappr:ker-20220101-38-1-07. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: KEA (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/keaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.