The economics of (mis)information in the age of social media

新的媒体技术允许任何人传播他们的观点，导致了错误信息泛滥的“声音不和谐”。 信息经济学的工具是为理解在有许多有偏见的新闻来源的环境中的信息消费而量身定制的。我们开发的经济模型中，许多来源的竞争，以吸引和影响异质听众。然后，我们研究了错误信息如何传播和放大时，消费者的信息通过社交网络与许多其他人沟通。最后，我们研究了如何设计简单而强大的规则，以促进信息话语和过滤错误信息。研究结果将为监管媒体平台和社交媒体中的错误信息提供经济政策建议。

New media technologies allow anyone to broadcast their views, leading to a “cacophony of voices” where misinformation flourishes.  Tools from information economics are tailor-made for understanding information consumption in settings with many biased news sources. We develop economic models where many sources compete to attract and influence heterogenous listeners. We then study how misinformation spreads and amplifies when consumers of information communicate with many others through a social network. Finally, we study how to design simple and robust rules to foster informative discourse and filter misinformation. The results will shape economic policy recommendations for regulating misinformation in media platforms and social media.