@article{09d7df7d54264692ad55ce5a42384f2a,
title = "Mediated talk: An experiment",
abstract = "We experimentally compare mediated (cheap) talk with direct (cheap) talk. Theory, guided by a characterization of equilibria in both environments, suggests that mediated talk has the potential to improve information sharing and welfare relative to direct talk. We sharpen the theory prediction by invoking Crawford's (2003) language-anchored level-k analysis. In the experiment, we find that mediated talk can indeed facilitate information transmission. We also find, however, that this requires that the language employed conforms with the mediation mechanism: mediation mechanisms improve information sharing for a variety of conforming languages, but fail to do so with a nonconforming language. These experimental findings match the predictions from the language-anchored level-k analysis. Strikingly, this is the case even when a whole array of alternative selection criteria (including iterative deletion of dominated strategies, strict equilibrium, Pareto efficiency, etc.) make a unique common prediction that sharply disagrees with the language-anchored level-k prediction.",
keywords = "Communication, Laboratory experiments, Language, Mediation, Noisy channels, Sender-receiver games",
author = "Andreas Blume and Lai, {Ernest K.} and Wooyoung Lim",
note = "Funding Information: We are grateful to Alessandra Casella, Vince Crawford, Shih En Lu, Guillaume Fr{\'e}chette, Marta Serra-Garcia, Joel Sobel, and Tiemen Woutersen for helpful suggestions. We have benefitted from comments by seminar audiences at the Asian Meeting of the Econometric Society at Xiamen University, Claremont Graduate University, the Conference on Strategic Information Transmission at Peking University, the European Meeting of the Economic Science Association (ESA), Lingnan University, New York University, the Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET) International Conference in Ischia, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Simon Fraser University, the Southwest Economic Theory (SWET) conference, the University of Calgary, the University of Central Florida, and the Virtual East Asia Experimental and Behavioral Economics Seminar Series. This study is supported by a grant from the Hong Kong Research Grant Council (Grant ECS-699613 ). Funding Information: We are grateful to Alessandra Casella, Vince Crawford, Shih En Lu, Guillaume Fr{\'e}chette, Marta Serra-Garcia, Joel Sobel, and Tiemen Woutersen for helpful suggestions. We have benefitted from comments by seminar audiences at the Asian Meeting of the Econometric Society at Xiamen University, Claremont Graduate University, the Conference on Strategic Information Transmission at Peking University, the European Meeting of the Economic Science Association (ESA), Lingnan University, New York University, the Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET) International Conference in Ischia, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Simon Fraser University, the Southwest Economic Theory (SWET) conference, the University of Calgary, the University of Central Florida, and the Virtual East Asia Experimental and Behavioral Economics Seminar Series. This study is supported by a grant from the Hong Kong Research Grant Council (Grant ECS-699613). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 Elsevier Inc.",
year = "2023",
month = mar,
doi = "10.1016/j.jet.2022.105593",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "208",
journal = "Journal of Economic Theory",
issn = "0022-0531",
publisher = "Academic Press Inc.",
}