Is Education the Best Tool to Fight Disinformation?

Education positively affects human development, while disinformation hinders human activities. However, in previous economic studies on disinformation, the role of education is, at the best, implicit. This theoretical and empirical paper, therefore, aims to put education at the centre of the disinformation problem. Precisely, a theoretic model of information search is used to show the negative effect of disinformation on market outcomes, while a survey study on graduates in Italian universities is used to highlight the role of education in reducing the negative impact of disinformation. Two are the main results of this analysis. First, in the presence of disinformation, the auditing of the sources of information is a necessary activity. Second, education is the most effective tool for reducing the auditing cost. It follows that the investment in education is the best economic and social policy to fight disinformation.