Uncertainty and Information Acquisition: Evidence from Firms and Households
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Uncertainty and Information Acquisition: Evidence from Firms and Households. / Mikosch, Heiner; Roth, Christopher; Sarferaz, Samad; Wohlfart, Johannes.
2021.Research output: Working paper › Research
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TY - UNPB
T1 - Uncertainty and Information Acquisition: Evidence from Firms and Households
AU - Mikosch, Heiner
AU - Roth, Christopher
AU - Sarferaz, Samad
AU - Wohlfart, Johannes
PY - 2021/12/1
Y1 - 2021/12/1
N2 - We leverage the small open economy Switzerland as a testing ground for basic premises of macroeconomic models of endogenous information acquisition, using tailored surveys of firms and households. First, we show that firms perceive a greater exposure to exchange rate movements than households, which is reflected in higher levels of information acquisition and less dispersed beliefs about past and future exchange rate realizations. Similarly, within the two samples, acquisition of exchange rate information strongly increases in various proxies for stake size. Second, households who perceive higher costs of acquiring or processing information acquire less information. Finally, an exogenous increase in the perceived uncertainty of the exchange rate increases firms’ demand for a report about exchange rate developments, but not households’. Our findings inform the modeling of information frictions in macroeconomics.
AB - We leverage the small open economy Switzerland as a testing ground for basic premises of macroeconomic models of endogenous information acquisition, using tailored surveys of firms and households. First, we show that firms perceive a greater exposure to exchange rate movements than households, which is reflected in higher levels of information acquisition and less dispersed beliefs about past and future exchange rate realizations. Similarly, within the two samples, acquisition of exchange rate information strongly increases in various proxies for stake size. Second, households who perceive higher costs of acquiring or processing information acquire less information. Finally, an exogenous increase in the perceived uncertainty of the exchange rate increases firms’ demand for a report about exchange rate developments, but not households’. Our findings inform the modeling of information frictions in macroeconomics.
KW - Det Samfundsvidenskabelige Fakultet
KW - Information Acquisition
KW - Uncertainty
KW - Stake Size
KW - Firms
KW - Households
M3 - Working paper
T3 - CEBI Working Paper Series
BT - Uncertainty and Information Acquisition: Evidence from Firms and Households
ER -
ID: 287823690