Incentive StructureLately, I have taken a keen interest in information economics.
Lately, I have taken a keen interest in information economics.
“Information economics or the economics of information is a branch of microeconomic theory that studies how information and information systems affect an economy and economic decisions. Information has special characteristics: It is easy to create but hard to trust. It is easy to spread but hard to control.”
It often explains, on a very micro scale, how people make certain decisions based off of the limited amount of information at their disposal.
In a “completely fair world,” all information is easily accessible and knowable by all.
Reality, however, is far different — especially in corporations and large societies. Information is not freely accessible. Social, economic, and political barriers form to create walls around certain knowledge.
Gapes in knowledge often influence decisions.
When I worked at Uber, this was obvious in the management style and performance of workers.
Here at school, this is also obvious. Students do things based off of the knowledge they have accessible. More than that, they make choices based off of how the information is presented.
Professors and administration do the same.
I think that we all operate on our own assumptions and beliefs — a product of the information we have in our mind. This makes up our bias and informs our decision making.
I am not sure that we often credit incentive and information availability to the *why* that we use to explain decision making. We tend to blame personal qualities or shortcomings for misses.
What if it is just a product of structure?
Originally published at gonen.blog.
By jordangonen on August 29, 2017.
Exported from Medium on February 17, 2018.