An agent has access to multiple data sources, each of which provides information about a different attribute of an unknown state. Information is acquired continuously--where the agent chooses both which sources to sample from, and also how to allocate resources across them--until an endogenously chosen time, at which point a decision is taken. We show that the optimal information acquisition strategy proceeds in stages, where resource allocation is constant over a fixed set of providers during each stage, and at each stage a new provider is added to the set. We additionally apply this characterization to derive  results regarding: (1) endogenous information acquisition in a binary choiceproblem , and (2) equilibrium information provision by competing news sources.
An agent has access to multiple information sources, each of which provides information about a different attribute of an unknown state. Information is acquired continuously\textemdash where the agent chooses both which sources to sample from, and also how to allocate attention across them\textemdash until an endogenously chosen time, at which point a decision is taken. We provide an exact characterization of the optimal information acquisition strategy for settings where the attributes are not too strongly correlated. We then apply this characterization to derive new results regarding: (1) endogenous information acquisition for binary choice , and (2) strategic information provision by competing news sources.
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data
information
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continuously--where
continuously\textemdash where
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resources across them--until
attention across them\textemdash until
R
show that
provide an exact characterization of
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proceeds in stages, where resource allocation is constant over a fixed set of providers during each stage, and at each stage a new provider is added to the set. We additionally
for settings where the attributes are not too strongly correlated. We then
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new
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in a binary choiceproblem
for binary choice
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equilibrium
strategic