Do people really want to be informed? Ex-ante evaluations of information-campaign effectiveness

Romain Espinosa; Jan Stoop

doi:10.1007/s10683-020-09692-6

Do people really want to be informed? Ex-ante evaluations of information-campaign effectiveness

Romain Espinosa^*, Jan Stoop

^*Corresponding author for this work

Applied Economics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

6 Citations (Web of Science)

Abstract

We develop a method to assess population knowledge about any given topic. We define, and rationalize, types of beliefs that form the ‘knowledge spectrum’. Using a sample of over 7000 UK residents, we estimate these beliefs with respect to three topics: an animal-based diet, alcohol consumption and immigration. We construct an information-campaign effectiveness index (ICEI) that predicts the success of an information campaign. Information resistance is greatest for animal-based diets, and the ICEI is highest for immigration. We test the predictive power of our ICEI by simulating information campaigns, which produces supportive evidence. Our method can be used by any government or company that wants to explore the success of an information campaign.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1131-1155
Number of pages	25
Journal	Experimental Economics
Volume	24
Issue number	4
Early online date	15 Jan 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10683-020-09692-6
Publication status	Published - Dec 2021

Bibliographical note

JEL Classifcation C70 · C90 · D10 · D1
Funding Information:
We would like to thank Georg Granic, Nicolas Treich, Andrew Clark, the editor and three anonymous referees for useful comments, as well as participants in various seminars (BETA Strasbourg, LESSAC Dijon, and CREM Rennes) and conferences (ASFEE 2019 Toulouse). We are also grateful to ERIM, NWO (Veni Grant 016.155.026, and Vidi Grant 195.061), ANR (Grant ANR-19-CE21-0005-01) for financial support.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, Economic Science Association.

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10.1007/s10683-020-09692-6

Cite this

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title = "Do people really want to be informed? Ex-ante evaluations of information-campaign effectiveness",

abstract = "We develop a method to assess population knowledge about any given topic. We define, and rationalize, types of beliefs that form the {\textquoteleft}knowledge spectrum{\textquoteright}. Using a sample of over 7000 UK residents, we estimate these beliefs with respect to three topics: an animal-based diet, alcohol consumption and immigration. We construct an information-campaign effectiveness index (ICEI) that predicts the success of an information campaign. Information resistance is greatest for animal-based diets, and the ICEI is highest for immigration. We test the predictive power of our ICEI by simulating information campaigns, which produces supportive evidence. Our method can be used by any government or company that wants to explore the success of an information campaign.",

author = "Romain Espinosa and Jan Stoop",

note = "JEL Classifcation C70 · C90 · D10 · D1 Funding Information: We would like to thank Georg Granic, Nicolas Treich, Andrew Clark, the editor and three anonymous referees for useful comments, as well as participants in various seminars (BETA Strasbourg, LESSAC Dijon, and CREM Rennes) and conferences (ASFEE 2019 Toulouse). We are also grateful to ERIM, NWO (Veni Grant 016.155.026, and Vidi Grant 195.061), ANR (Grant ANR-19-CE21-0005-01) for financial support. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021, Economic Science Association.",

year = "2021",

month = dec,

doi = "10.1007/s10683-020-09692-6",

language = "English",

volume = "24",

pages = "1131--1155",

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AB - We develop a method to assess population knowledge about any given topic. We define, and rationalize, types of beliefs that form the ‘knowledge spectrum’. Using a sample of over 7000 UK residents, we estimate these beliefs with respect to three topics: an animal-based diet, alcohol consumption and immigration. We construct an information-campaign effectiveness index (ICEI) that predicts the success of an information campaign. Information resistance is greatest for animal-based diets, and the ICEI is highest for immigration. We test the predictive power of our ICEI by simulating information campaigns, which produces supportive evidence. Our method can be used by any government or company that wants to explore the success of an information campaign.

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Do people really want to be informed? Ex-ante evaluations of information-campaign effectiveness

Abstract

Bibliographical note

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Do people really want to be informed? Ex-ante evaluations of information-campaign effectiveness

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Bibliographical note

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