Clumped or Piecewise? Evidence on Preferences for Information

In this paper we examine individuals’ attitudes towards the timing of information. We test a theoretical prediction that people prefer to get information “clumped together” rather than piecewise. We conduct a controlled lab experiment where subjects participate in a lottery and can choose between different resolutions of uncertainty (clumped or piecewise). In two treatments we analyze which kind of resolution is preferred. Two additional treatments allow us to get a quantitative measure of subjects’ preferences over different information structures. Our data does not support the prediction that piecewise information is utility-decreasing. JEL classifications: C91, D83