[Séminaire CREM] Measuring Altruism in the Rational Inattention

Measuring Altruism in the Rational Inattention coécrit avec Selin Yardimci et Amaury Brandenburg

In this paper, based on the Rational Inattention Multinomial Logit model (RI- MNL), we study choice behavior in various decision situations, including those with no financial reward and those where the correct choice benefits others. We explore the relationships between risk preferences, intrinsic motivations (such as enjoyment, pressure, effort, etc.), and the cost of attention allocation. We find that both risk preferences and intrinsic motivations play a significant role in the variations in attention cost. However, the direction of the effects of these variables on attention cost varies depending on the decision situations. We also estimate altruism in the RI-MNL model, and our estimated altruism is slightly higher than that found in existing literature. This difference may be caused by the presence of a positive cost of attention allocation. On the aggregate level, subjects are consistently rationally inattentive across different choice situations. Our paper contributes to the higher external validity of the rational inattention theory.