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arXiv · 1908.10330

Improving Information from Manipulable Data

Alex Frankel·Navin Kartik
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Abstract

Data-based decisionmaking must account for the manipulation of data by agents who are aware of how decisions are being made and want to affect their allocations. We study a framework in which, due to such manipulation, data becomes less informative when decisions depend more strongly on data. We formalize why and how a decisionmaker should commit to underutilizing data. Doing so attenuates information loss and thereby improves allocation accuracy.

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Alex Frankel, Navin Kartik. 2021-02-13. Improving Information from Manipulable Data. https://doi.org/10.1093/jeea%2Fjvab017

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