American Economic Review: Insights
ISSN 2640-205X (Print) | ISSN 2640-2068 (Online)
Risk Exposure and Acquisition of Macroeconomic Information
American Economic Review: Insights
vol. 4,
no. 1, March 2022
(pp. 34–53)
Abstract
We conduct an experiment with a representative sample from the United States to study households' demand for macroeconomic information. Respondents who learn of a higher personal exposure to unemployment risk during recessions increase their demand for an expert forecast about the likelihood of a recession. This finding is consistent with macroeconomic models of endogenous information acquisition, according to which the demand for information depends on its expected benefits. Moreover, respondents' updating about their personal unemployment risk suggests that households are imperfectly informed about their exposure to aggregate fluctuations, which may distort their beliefs about the benefits of acquiring macroeconomic information.Citation
Roth, Christopher, Sonja Settele, and Johannes Wohlfart. 2022. "Risk Exposure and Acquisition of Macroeconomic Information." American Economic Review: Insights, 4 (1): 34–53. DOI: 10.1257/aeri.20200662Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D12 Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
- D83 Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
- E24 Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
- E32 Business Fluctuations; Cycles
- G01 Financial Crises
- J64 Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search