Availability Cascades and Risk Regulation

@article{Kuran1999AvailabilityCA,
  title={Availability Cascades and Risk Regulation},
  author={Timur Kuran and Cass Robert Sunstein},
  journal={Industrial Organization \& Regulation eJournal},
  year={1999}
}
  • T. KuranC. Sunstein
  • Published 1 April 1999
  • Political Science
  • Industrial Organization & Regulation eJournal
An availability cascade is a self-reinforcing process of collective belief formation by which an expressed perception triggers a chain reaction that gives the perception of increasing plausibility through its rising availability in public discourse. The driving mechanism involves a combination of informational and reputational motives: Individuals endorse the perception partly by learning from the apparent beliefs of others and partly by distorting their public responses in the interest of… 
View on SSRN
chicagounbound.uchicago.edu
635 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
25
Background Citations
193
Methods Citations
6
Results Citations
6

635 Citations

Collective Belief Formation and the Politically Correct Concerning Information on Risk Behaviour

The development of collective beliefs via informational and reputational cascades represents a way of shortcircuiting the difficulties related to the collective action of ‘latent groups’ (the problem…

Informational Cascades , Cognitive Bias , and Catastrophic Risk

Communities facing serious and repetitive risks from natural hazards often fail to protect themselves leaving the Federal government to pay for recovery. By integrating insights from cognitive…

Disaster Mythology and Availability Cascades

Sociological research conducted in the aftermath of natural disasters has uncovered a number of “disaster myths” – widely shared misconceptions about typical post-disaster human behavior. This paper…

Public Opinion: Microsociological Aspects

Interrupting the social amplification of risk process: a case study in collective emissions reduction

Media Legitimation Effects in the Market for Initial Public Offerings

In this study, we argue that media-provided information affects investors’ impressions of newly public firms. In 225 initial public offerings (IPOs), the volume of mediaprovided information had a…

Creating Social Norms Through Media, Cascades and Cognitive Anchors: Judicial Activism and the Quality of Energy Law from the Perspective of Behavioural Law and Economics

This chapter is devoted to the topic of judicial activism (or lack thereof) and the quality of energy law from a behavioural law and economics point of view. It complements our previous research by…

Dynamics of Environmental Regulation and Voters’ Biased Beliefs: A Political Economy Approach

This paper develops a political economy model which determines the conditions of cycles in environmental regulation. It analyzes the impact of both interest groups and voters who have biased…

Availability Cascades and the Sharing Economy: A Critique of Sharing Economy Narratives

As scholars search for a new concept that will provide answers on how modern societies should make sense of and resolve the social and environmental problems linked to our modes of production and…

Designing a Choice Architecture for Regulators

The emergence of behavioral public administration has led to increasing calls for public managers and policy makers to consider predictable cognitive biases when regulating individual behaviors or…
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 19 REFERENCES

'More Good than Harm': A First Principle for Environmental Agencies and Reviewing Courts

Environmental protection necessarily requires choices. While expected to make reasonable choices, environmental agencies often bow to internal incentives and external pressures to do just the…

The Normative Failure Theory of Law

Author(s): Cooter, Robert D. | Abstract: Law often grows from social norms that create order. Many social norms change behavior by imposing obligations on people. I model the evolution of effective…

Other People's Money.

Only as a result of the Keynesian revolution did it become obvious to everyone that the problem during a slump is too little spending, not too much, and that recovery depends on persuading the public to start spending again.

The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion.

Originally published in Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books, 1994, Vol 39(2), 225. Reviews the book, The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion by John Zaller (1992). The author's commendable…

HeinOnline --51 Stan

  • L. Rev

See generally MARGOLIS, supra note 127

    Reinventing the Regulatory State, 62 U. CmH

      Chicago Working Papers in Law and Economics

        ) (striking down an EPA ban on asbestos in brake parts in part because the agency failed to consider evidence that the ban would cost more lives than 278. See generally

        • Corrosion Proof Fittings v. EPA, 947 F.2d 1201
        • 1991

        discussing the role of OIRA in the Reagan and Bush Administrations). 256. For a catalogue, see ALBERT GORE

        • 1993