Abstract. Introspection and abundant field and lab evidence indicate that people often infer population characteristics from the data available. When people lack records and are not given feedback, however, they might underweight some of such data, perhaps due to inattention or memory failures. In this paper we use lab experiments and a parsimonious analytical framework to explore inference when limited attention and memory lead to (extreme) data underweighting, the relevance of such phenomenon, and whether people exhibit different patterns of underweighting.

Abstract. Natural resource endowments can determine a country’s specialisation and provide it with an advantaged position in international networks, but they can also lock it into low value-added activities in global value chains. Favourable weather and soil conditions have made olive trees one of the most recognisable characteristics of the Mediterranean landscape for thousands of years.