This paper provides an explanation for why many information campaigns fail to affect decision-making. The authors experimentally show that a large information intervention about a profitable and climate-friendly household investment had limited effects if it only provided generic data. In contrast, it caused households to make new investments when it followed a campaign strategy designed to minimize information processing costs. This finding is consistent with a model of selective attention, where individuals prioritize information believed to be valuable after accounting for the costs of attending to the data that arise due to limited mental energy and time. The paper studies a range of possible mechanisms and finds corroborative evidence of selective attention as an inhibitor to learning.
Details
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Author
Coville,Aidan, Orozco Olvera,Victor Hugo, Reichert,Arndt Rudiger
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Document Date
2019/09/12
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Document Type
Policy Research Working Paper
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Report Number
WPS9009
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Volume No
1
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Total Volume(s)
1
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Country
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Region
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Disclosure Date
2019/09/12
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Disclosure Status
Disclosed
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Doc Name
Paying Attention to Profitable Investments : Experimental Evidence from Renewable Energy Markets
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Citation
Coville,Aidan Orozco Olvera,Victor Hugo Reichert,Arndt Rudiger
Paying Attention to Profitable Investments : Experimental Evidence from Renewable Energy Markets (English). Policy Research working paper,no. WPS 9009,Impact Evaluation series Washington, D.C. : World Bank Group. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/935421568313537951/Paying-Attention-to-Profitable-Investments-Experimental-Evidence-from-Renewable-Energy-Markets