Date: November 14th, 2024 (12:30 pm – 1:30 pm)

Speaker: Ala Avoyan

Paper Title: How do Groups Speak and How are They Understood? (with Paula Onuchic)

Abstract: We experimentally study an environment where a group of senders communicates with a receiver by disclosing or not disclosing a realized outcome. Group members have distinct preferences over disclosure/non-disclosure, and must aggregate their interests into a single group disclosure decision. We establish a relationship between the aggregation procedure used by the group and the receiver’s interpretation of the group’s “no disclosure messages.” Generally, group members who have more power over the group’s disclosure decision are regarded with more skepticism when the group fails to disclose. In a group disclosure setting, we find that the observer can be both not sufficiently skeptical or too skeptical relative to theoretical predictions. Finally, we highlight that, in practice, the interpretation of communication from a group differs from that of individual communication, even when these are theoretically equivalent.

Bio: Ala Avoyan is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Indiana University. She received her PhD in economics at NYU.

Her primary research interests are in experimental and behavioral economics as well as micro theory.