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Acquiring irrelevant information as a commitment

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Listed:
  • Wataru Kitano
  • Shohei Yanagita

Abstract

We formulate the voter's strategic information acquisition to control the future self's action as a Bayesian persuasion problem. Our main result shows that acquiring information that is irrelevant to the voter's objective can be a worst-case optimal solution: it can reduce the possibility that the future self is swayed by additional information whose content is ambiguous to the current voter.

Suggested Citation

  • Wataru Kitano & Shohei Yanagita, 2026. "Acquiring irrelevant information as a commitment," Papers 2608.14173, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2026.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2608.14173
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Rienks, Harm, 2023. "Corruption, scandals and incompetence: Do voters care?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    2. David P. Myatt & Chris Wallace, 2012. "Endogenous Information Acquisition in Coordination Games," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 79(1), pages 340-374.
    3. Piotr Dworczak & Alessandro Pavan, 2022. "Preparing for the Worst but Hoping for the Best: Robust (Bayesian) Persuasion," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 90(5), pages 2017-2051, September.
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