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Welfare in Experimental News Markets

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  • Albertazzi, Andrea
  • Ploner, Matteo
  • Vaccari, Federico

Abstract

We perform a controlled experiment to study the welfare effects of competition in a strategic communication environment. Two equally informed senders with conflicting interests can misreport information at a cost that is increasing in the size of the lie. We compare a treatment where only one sender communicates with a treatment where both senders communicate simultaneously with a decision-maker. We find that the introduction of competition between senders decreases the welfare of all players. Competing senders reveal the truth less often and spend about twice the amount of resources to misreport information than their monopolistic counterpart. As a result, decision-makers take more informed choices when consulting one sender than when consulting both.

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  • Albertazzi, Andrea & Ploner, Matteo & Vaccari, Federico, 2021. "Welfare in Experimental News Markets," SocArXiv 5j2w8, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:5j2w8
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/5j2w8
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    JEL classification:

    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior
    • D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General

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