Showing 1 - 10 of 681
We have developed a method for directly learning relative preferences from histories of comparison information without an intermediate utility computation. Our method infers preferences that are rational in a psychological sense, where agent choices result from Bayesian inference of what to do...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10014140630
We offer a model to explain why groups of people sometimes converge upon poor decisions and are prone to fads, even though they can discuss the outcomes of their choices. Models of informational herding or cascades have examined how rational individuals learn by observing predecessors' actions,...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10014132384
This paper shows how sustainable consumption patterns can spread within a population via processes of social learning even though a strong individual learning bias may favor environmentally harmful products. We present a model depicting how the biased transmission of different behaviors via...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010266737
We study whether households can distinguish persistent from transitory income shocks, and the implications for consumption-saving behavior. We construct a novel consumption-saving model where the household must infer the persistent component of its income process from actual income realizations...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013202228
This article relates agents' learning of a preference for a technology, competition of technologies, and their relative diffusion among potential adopters. Competitive interactions between two technologies are captured by an extended Lotka–Volterra model. To also incorporate preference...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010737827
We analyse the dynamics resulting from social learning in a simple general equilibrium (GE) model, whose structure is similar to the one underlying macroeconomic models of the New Macroeconomic Synthesis. The economy is composed by households and firms who exchange labour and consumption goods...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013048351
We study whether households can distinguish persistent from transitory income shocks, and the implications for consumption-saving behavior. We construct a novel consumption-saving model where the household must infer the persistent component of its income process from actual income realizations...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012928282
Distortions in memory impose important bounds on rationality but have been largely disregarded in economics. While it is possible to learn, it is more difficult, and sometimes impossible, to unlearn. This retention effect lowers individual utility directly or via reduced productivity, and adds...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10014070981
I provide axiomatic foundations for a model of taste uncertainty with endogenous learning through consumption. In this setting, uncertainty is over an unobservable, subjective state space. Preference over lottery–menu pairs is sufficient to identify the state space and the learning process. In...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011744296
The article presents an experience developed with upper undergraduate microeconomics students which consists of reading selected classical articles on key microeconomics topics rather than attending typical lectures. The paper has two main goals. First, to give a detailed account of the...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10014192515