IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/jpolec/doi10.1086-717350.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Learning before Trading: On the Inefficiency of Ignoring Free Information

Author

Listed:
  • Doron Ravid
  • Anne-Katrin Roesler
  • Balázs Szentes

Abstract

This paper analyzes a bilateral trade model in which the buyer’s valuation for the object is uncertain and she can privately purchase any signal about her valuation. The seller makes a take-it-or-leave-it offer to the buyer. The cost of a signal is smooth and increasing in informativeness. We characterize the set of equilibria when learning is free and show that they are strongly Pareto ranked. Our main result is that when learning is costly but the cost of information goes to zero, equilibria converge to the worst free-learning equilibrium.

Suggested Citation

  • Doron Ravid & Anne-Katrin Roesler & Balázs Szentes, 2022. "Learning before Trading: On the Inefficiency of Ignoring Free Information," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 130(2), pages 346-387.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jpolec:doi:10.1086/717350
    DOI: 10.1086/717350
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/717350
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/717350
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/717350?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Daniel Krähmer, 2024. "The Hold-Up Problem with Flexible Unobservable Investments," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 278, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    2. Bartosz Maćkowiak & Filip Matějka & Mirko Wiederholt, 2023. "Rational Inattention: A Review," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 61(1), pages 226-273, March.
    3. Brian C. Albrecht & Mark Whitmeyer, 2023. "Comparison Shopping: Learning Before Buying From Duopolists," Papers 2302.06580, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2023.
    4. Tommaso Denti & Doron Ravid, 2023. "Robust Predictions in Games with Rational Inattention," Papers 2306.09964, arXiv.org.
    5. Yeon-Koo Che & Weijie Zhong, 2021. "Robustly Optimal Mechanisms for Selling Multiple Goods," Papers 2105.02828, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2024.
    6. Xiaoxiao Hu & Haoran Lei, 2023. "Information transmission in monopolistic credence goods markets," Papers 2303.13295, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2023.
    7. Terstiege, Stefan & Wasser, Cédric, 2023. "Experiments versus distributions of posteriors," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 58-60.
    8. Tommaso Denti & Massimo Marinacci & Aldo Rustichini, 2022. "Experimental Cost of Information," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(9), pages 3106-3123, September.
    9. Gregorio Curello & Ludvig Sinander, 2024. "The Comparative Statics of Persuasion," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2024_564, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    10. Mark Whitmeyer & Kun Zhang, 2022. "Costly Evidence and Discretionary Disclosure," Papers 2208.04922, arXiv.org.
    11. Kim, Kyungmin & Koh, Youngwoo, 2022. "Auctions with flexible information acquisition," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 256-281.
    12. Vasudha Jain & Mark Whitmeyer, 2021. "Search and Competition with Flexible Investigations," Papers 2104.13159, arXiv.org.
    13. Yang, Kai Hao, 2023. "On the continuity of outcomes in a monopoly market," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    14. Daniel Krähmer, 2024. "The hold-up problem with flexible unobservable investments," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2024_523, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.

    More about this item

    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:ucp:jpolec:doi:10.1086/717350. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JPE .

    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.