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It’s Good to Be First: Order Bias in Reading and Citing NBER Working Papers

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel Feenberg

    (NBER)

  • Ina Ganguli

    (University of Massachusetts Amherst)

  • Patrick Gaulé

    (CERGE-EI)

  • Jonathan Gruber

    (MIT and NBER)

Abstract

When choices are made from ordered lists, individuals can exhibit biases toward selecting certain options as a result of the ordering. We examine this phenomenon in the context of consumer response to the ordering of economics papers in an e-mail announcement issued by the NBER. We show that despite the effectively random list placement, papers listed first each week are about 30% more likely to be viewed, downloaded, and subsequently cited. We suggest that a model of “skimming” behavior, where individuals focus on the first few papers in the list due to time constraints, would be most consistent with our findings.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Feenberg & Ina Ganguli & Patrick Gaulé & Jonathan Gruber, 2017. "It’s Good to Be First: Order Bias in Reading and Citing NBER Working Papers," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 99(1), pages 32-39, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:restat:v:99:y:2017:i:1:p:32-39
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • A2 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics
    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness

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