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Keh-Kuan Sun

Publications and source records attributed to Keh-Kuan Sun.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

When AI Improves Answers but Slows Knowledge Creation: Matching and Dynamic Knowledge Creation in Digital Public Goods

Generative AI helps users solve problems more efficiently, but without leaving a public trace. Fewer discussions and solutions reach public platforms, and the archives that future problem-solvers depend on can shrink. We build a dynamic model of public good provision where agents contribute by solving problems that other agents posted on a public platform, and the accumulated solutions form a depreciating public archive. AI reduces archive creation through two margins that require different instruments. The flow margin: the posted volume of knowledge-enhancing queries declines as AI resolves more problems privately before they reach the platform. The resolution margin: the probability that posted queries are resolved declines as AI raises contributors' outside options, thinning the contributor pool and creating congestion on the platform. The two margins interact through a self-undermining feedback that can generate low-archive traps. The decomposition yields a diagnostic prediction: in the congested regime, a joint decline in posted volume and conditional resolution requires that supply-side pool thinning is quantitatively present, whereas volume decline with stable or rising resolution indicates that private diversion alone is the dominant force. Encouraging public sharing of AI-assisted solutions offsets the decline associated with private diversion but cannot repair participation-driven deterioration in conditional resolution, which requires maintaining contributor engagement directly.

econ.GN

Non-Allais Paradox and Context-Dependent Risk Attitudes

We provide and axiomatize a representation for preferences over lotteries that generalizes the expected utility model. Since the representation uses different utility functions to evaluate different lotteries, the preferences can be interpreted as coming from individuals that have context-dependent attitudes toward risks. The model enables generating various violations of the independence axiom that are not compatible with some of the most prominent models of non-expected utility. Depending on the specification chosen, the model can range from being very flexible with many different utility functions to being parsimonious with few or just one utility function.

econ.TH

Lying Aversion and Vague Communication: An Experimental Study

An agent may strategically employ a vague message to mislead an audience's belief about the state of the world, but this may cause the agent to feel guilt or negatively impact how the audience perceives the agent. Using a novel experimental design that allows participants to be vague while at the same time isolating the internal cost of lying from the social identity cost of appearing dishonest, we explore the extent to which these two types of lying costs affect communication. We find that participants exploit vagueness to be consistent with the truth, while at the same time leveraging the imprecision to their own benefit. More participants use vague messages in treatments where concern with social identity is relevant. In addition, we find that social identity concerns substantially affect the length and patterns of vague messages used across the treatments.

econ.GN