Date of Completion

8-22-2018

Embargo Period

8-22-2018

Keywords

Information Economics, Reputation, Online platforms, Patents, Litigation, Crime, Policing

Major Advisor

Talia Bar

Associate Advisor

Yizao Liu

Associate Advisor

Stephen L. Ross

Field of Study

Economics

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Open Access

Open Access

Abstract

In economic systems, new information or changes in information sets may have an outsized impact on the behavior of rational economic agents. Here, I investigate this relationship in three idiosyncratic scenarios. First, I look at the responses by online reputation platform users to a positive quality signal, and inspect how this effect differs across heterogeneous agents. Second, inside a theoretical model of patent litigation and settlement, I analyze parties’ responses and litigation outcomes with respect to changes in evidence regarding patent validity. Lastly, I work through a simple model of motorist and police behavior to investigate whether there are testable racial profiling implications if motorists rationally change their behavior in response to changes in visibility.

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