Non-monotone social learning
Date
05/2021Author
Metadata
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Abstract
We revisit the canonical binary-state model of social learning to investigate the possibility of non-monotone learning: ceteris paribus, with some predecessor(s) switching to actions that reveal greater confidence in one state of the world, agents nevertheless become more confident in the other. A necessary and sufficient condition for non-monotone learning is provided in an illustrative setting where agents are either uninformed or partially informed by binary private signals. In a general setting with continuous private signals, we obtain a sufficient condition for non-monotone learning that does not rely on the shape of the underlying information structures apart from a couple of simple boundary requirements. As a result, a social learning process that completes eventually can be well approximated in a way such that non-monotone learning and anti-imitation are bound to happen.
Citation
Zhang , M 2021 , ' Non-monotone social learning ' , Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization , vol. 185 , pp. 565-579 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2021.03.009
Publication
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0167-2681Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. This work has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies or with permission. Permission for further reuse of this content should be sought from the publisher or the rights holder. This is the author created accepted manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2021.03.009
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