Observational learning with position uncertainty

A-Tier
Journal: Journal of Economic Theory
Year: 2014
Volume: 154
Issue: C
Pages: 375-402

Score contribution per author:

2.011 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 2.0x A-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

Observational learning is typically examined when agents have precise information about their position in the sequence of play. We present a model in which agents are uncertain about their positions. Agents sample the decisions of past individuals and receive a private signal about the state of the world. We show that social learning is robust to position uncertainty. Under any sampling rule satisfying a stationarity assumption, learning is complete if signal strength is unbounded. In cases with bounded signal strength, we provide a lower bound on information aggregation: individuals do at least as well as an agent with the strongest signal realizations would do in isolation. Finally, we show in a simple environment that position uncertainty slows down learning but not to a great extent.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:jetheo:v:154:y:2014:i:c:p:375-402
Journal Field
Theory
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-26