We develop a revealed preference test for optimal acquisition of costly information. The test encompasses models of rational inattention, sequential signal processing, and search. We provide limits on the extent to which attention costs can be recovered from choice data. We experimentally elicit...

We introduce a new measure of how close a set of choices are to satisfying the observable implications of rational choice and apply it to a large balanced panel of household level consumption data. This new measure, the Minimum Cost Index, is the minimum cost of breaking all revealed preference...

We provide a full behavioral characterization of the standard Shannon model of rational inattention. The key axiom is "Invariance under Compression", which identifies this model as capturing an ideal form of attention-constrained choice. We introduce tractable generalizations that allow for many...