On the Relevance of Irrelevant Information

A (Alexei) Parakhonyak

Research output: Book/Report/Inaugural speech/Farewell speechReportAcademic

Abstract

This paper analyses the role of information in the search process. I build a simple model of a good with two random attributes with some joint probability distribution. I consider seemingly unimportant changes in this distribution, i.e. changes which neither affect expected utility nor its variance. These changes have a great impact on the search behaviour: the customer may start to search the characteristics and buy the good even if she did not do so before. The optimal search rule is derived and the model is generalized to multiple objects.
Original languageUndefined/Unknown
PublisherTinbergen Institute
EditionTinbergen Institute Discussion Paper TI 2009-087/1
Publication statusPublished - 2009

Publication series

SeriesTinbergen Institute Discussion Paper
VolumeTI 2009-087/1

Research programs

  • EUR ESE 02

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