Delay in Social Learning

We study a class of social learning games in which players choose whether and when to make an irreversible investment. We ask whether the option value of learning induces delay. Surprisingly, under natural and standard assumptions, delay does not arise in equilibrium. Although waiting even momentarily would yield informative observations, we show that this learning is payoff-irrelevant. As a result, players either invest immediately or not at all. Lab rat 1: "Did you get the COVID vaccine yet?" Lab rat 2: "Nah, I'm waiting for the results of the human trials."