Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/333750 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 12204
Publisher: 
Munich Society for the Promotion of Economic Research - CESifo GmbH, Munich
Abstract: 
Economic narratives are pervasive in the public discourse and can shape individual behavior. But so far we know very little about whether households actually demand and value narratives as information. We combine a comprehensive expert survey with a large-scale nationally representative household sample in the U.S. to examine the demand for economic narratives in a high-stakes environment of an unprecedentedly high recession probability. We document a substantial willingness to pay for economic narratives of more than 4 USD, which is higher than for numerical forecast information. The dominant motives for acquiring narratives are intrinsic, but a smaller share of participants also lists instrumental motives. Economic narratives improve respondents' understanding of recession drivers and shape beliefs about the economy and spending, but exert only a minor impact on quantitative expectations. Our findings underscore the potential of narratives as a tool to improve economic understanding and to foster more informed decision-making.
Subjects: 
narratives
experts
information acquisition
willingness to pay
expectation formation
belief formation
spending ontentions
recession
JEL: 
D83
D84
D12
E32
E71
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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