Modeling the Change of Paradigm: Non-Bayesian Reactions to Unexpected News

S-Tier
Journal: American Economic Review
Year: 2012
Volume: 102
Issue: 6
Pages: 2410-36

Score contribution per author:

8.043 = (α=2.01 / 1 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

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

Abstract

Bayes' rule has two well-known limitations: 1) it does not model the reaction to zero-probability events; 2) a sizable empirical evidence documents systematic violations of it. We characterize axiomatically an alternative updating rule, the Hypothesis Testing model. According to it, the agent follows Bayes' rule if she receives information to which she assigned a probability above a threshold. Otherwise, she looks at a prior over priors, updates it using Bayes' rule for second-order priors, and chooses the prior to which the updated prior over priors assigns the highest likelihood. We also present an application to equilibrium refinement in game theory. (JEL D11, D81, D83)

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:aea:aecrev:v:102:y:2012:i:6:p:2410-36
Journal Field
General
Author Count
1
Added to Database
2026-01-26