 Paying Attention to Inattention: Evidence from LibrariesMatheus Albergaria () and Gilberto Lima No 2019_51, Working Papers, Department of Economics from University of São Paulo (FEA-USP) Abstract: This paper measures inattention in a novel setting, an information commons. Employing a dataset that contains more than 300,000 daily transactions in libraries during a 10-year period, we compare the compliance behavior of library users over weekdays. Since library users get periodic reminders to return books checked out from the library, delays can be arguably interpreted as a form of inattention. If inattention affects rule compliance, then one would expect greater return delays in periods of potentially higher inattention, such as the day before weekends, holidays, and exam weeks, for example. We report the occurrence of a “Friday effect†: inattention, as measured by delays in returning checked out books, is consistently higher on Fridays, when compared to the other days of the week. There is no evidence of inattention in dates near holidays, or exam weeks. Taken together, the results reported in this paper represent new empirical evidence related to an important behavioral bias in a real-world setting. Keywords: Behavioral economics; inattention; information commons; reminders (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spa:wpaper:2019wpecon51 Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from Access Statistics for this paper More papers in Working Papers, Department of Economics from University of São Paulo (FEA-USP) Contact information at EDIRC. |
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