We set a spatial framework where an agent has to choose one among a set of activities. The activities are costly to reach, due to travel costs. Agents know the distances and the prices, but we do not know the match value,i.e. the monetary fit between the agent and the activity. This matching value is modeled as a random variable. We analyse the impact of informationavailability and of constraints on the agent's decision protocol and on the demand for travel. In each situation we consider, we derive or approximate the expected distance covered by the agent, the variance of this expected distance, and the expected utility of the agent. It appears that more information as well as lower constraints yield higher expected utility. Wepropose a method to compute the value of information. We show that more information does not systematically yield higher expected distance traveled.
Abstract