Defaults and Attention: The Drop Out Effect /
Caplin, Andrew.
Defaults and Attention: The Drop Out Effect / Andrew Caplin, Daniel J. Martin. - Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2012. - 1 online resource: illustrations (black and white); - NBER working paper series no. w17988 . - Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w17988. .
April 2012.
When choice options are complex, policy makers may seek to reduce decision making errors by making a high quality option the default. We show that this positive effect is at risk because such a policy creates incentives for decision makers to "drop out" by paying no attention to the decision and accepting the default sight unseen. Using decision time as a proxy for attention, we confirm the importance of this effect in an experimental setting. A key challenge for policy makers is to measure, and if possible mitigate, such drop out behavior in the field.
System requirements: Adobe [Acrobat] Reader required for PDF files.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Defaults and Attention: The Drop Out Effect / Andrew Caplin, Daniel J. Martin. - Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2012. - 1 online resource: illustrations (black and white); - NBER working paper series no. w17988 . - Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w17988. .
April 2012.
When choice options are complex, policy makers may seek to reduce decision making errors by making a high quality option the default. We show that this positive effect is at risk because such a policy creates incentives for decision makers to "drop out" by paying no attention to the decision and accepting the default sight unseen. Using decision time as a proxy for attention, we confirm the importance of this effect in an experimental setting. A key challenge for policy makers is to measure, and if possible mitigate, such drop out behavior in the field.
System requirements: Adobe [Acrobat] Reader required for PDF files.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.