• Media type: Report; E-Book
  • Title: Inattention to rare events
  • Contributor: Maćkowiak, Bartosz [Author]; Wiederholt, Mirko [Author]
  • imprint: Frankfurt a. M.: European Central Bank (ECB), 2015
  • Language: English
  • ISBN: 978-92-899-1654-7
  • Keywords: rare events ; E60 ; rational inattention ; disasters ; E58 ; efficiency ; D83
  • Origination:
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  • Description: The world recently experienced several rare events with disastrous consequences: the global financial crisis, the European sovereign debt crisis, and the Fukushima nuclear accident. These events have in common that key decision-makers were unprepared for them, which aggravated these events. We develop a model in which agents make state-contingent plans — prepare to act in different contingencies — subject to the constraint that agents can process only a finite amount of information. We identify the forces that make agents prepare little for some contingencies. We study whether a social planner would want agents to prepare more for rare events.
  • Access State: Open Access