IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v110y2020i12p3913-51.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What Makes a Rule Complex?

Author

Listed:
  • Ryan Oprea

Abstract

We study the complexity of rules by paying experimental subjects to implement a series of algorithms and then eliciting their willingness-to-pay to avoid implementing them again in the future. The design allows us to examine hypotheses from the theoretical "automata" literature about the characteristics of rules that generate complexity costs. We find substantial aversion to complexity and a number of regularities in the characteristics of rules that make them complex and costly for subjects. Experience with a rule, the way a rule is represented, and the context in which a rule is implemented (mentally versus physically) also influence complexity.

Suggested Citation

  • Ryan Oprea, 2020. "What Makes a Rule Complex?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(12), pages 3913-3951, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:110:y:2020:i:12:p:3913-51
    DOI: 10.1257/aer.20191717
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aer.20191717
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/attachments?retrieve=b5MpNlRTB-Q8UNqUZUwJxxk5SC4Iipyn
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/E120285V1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aer.20191717.appx
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aer.20191717.ds
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/aer.20191717?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jean-Paul Chavas & Eleonora Matteazzi & Martina Menon & Federico Perali, 2021. "Bargaining in the Family," CHILD Working Papers Series 88 JEL Classification: D1, Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic Economics (CHILD) - CCA.
    2. Johannes Abeler & David Huffman & Collin Raymond & David B. Huffman, 2023. "Incentive Complexity, Bounded Rationality and Effort Provision," CESifo Working Paper Series 10541, CESifo.
    3. Benjamin Davies, 2022. "Why do experts give simple advice?," Papers 2209.11710, arXiv.org.
    4. Lohse, Johannes & Rahal, Rima-Maria & Schulte-Mecklenbeck, Michael & Sofianos, Andis & Wollbrant, Conny, 2024. "Investigations of decision processes at the intersection of psychology and economics," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    5. Alfio Giarlotta & Angelo Petralia, 2024. "Simon’s bounded rationality," Decisions in Economics and Finance, Springer;Associazione per la Matematica, vol. 47(1), pages 327-346, June.
    6. Brad M. Barber & Xing Huang & Terrance Odean & Christopher Schwarz, 2022. "Attention‐Induced Trading and Returns: Evidence from Robinhood Users," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 77(6), pages 3141-3190, December.
    7. Gian Caspari & Manshu Khanna, 2021. "Non-Standard Choice in Matching Markets," Papers 2111.06815, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2024.
    8. Anufriev, Mikhail & Duffy, John & Panchenko, Valentyn, 2022. "Learning in two-dimensional beauty contest games: Theory and experimental evidence," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).
    9. Yoram Halevy & Guy Mayraz, 2024. "Identifying Rule-Based Rationality," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 106(5), pages 1369-1380, September.
    10. Jean-Paul Chavas & Eleonora Matteazzi & Martina Menon & Federico Perali, 2022. "(In)Efficient Bargaining in the Family," Working Papers 2, SITES.
    11. Evan M. Calford & Timothy N. Cason, 2024. "Contingent Reasoning and Dynamic Public Goods Provision," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 16(2), pages 236-266, May.
    12. Bossaerts, Peter & Bowman, Elizabeth & Fattinger, Felix & Huang, Harvey & Lee, Michelle & Murawski, Carsten & Suthakar, Anirudh & Tang, Shireen & Yadav, Nitin, 2024. "Resource allocation, computational complexity, and market design," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    13. Cavalli, F. & Chen, H.-J. & Li, M.-C. & Naimzada, A. & Pecora, N., 2023. "Heterogeneous expectations and equilibria selection in an evolutionary overlapping generations model," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    14. Yuval Salant & Jörg L. Spenkuch, 2021. "Complexity and Choice," CESifo Working Paper Series 9239, CESifo.
    15. Abeler, Johannes & Huffman, David B. & Raymond, Collin, 2023. "Incentive Complexity, Bounded Rationality and Effort Provision," IZA Discussion Papers 16284, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Brice Corgnet & Roberto Hernán González, 2023. "On The Appeal Of Complexity," Working Papers 2312, Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon.
    17. Charness, Gary & Gneezy, Uri & Rasocha, Vlastimil, 2021. "Experimental methods: Eliciting beliefs," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 234-256.
    18. Marek Pycia & M. Utku Ünver, 2022. "Outside options in neutral allocation of discrete resources," Review of Economic Design, Springer;Society for Economic Design, vol. 26(4), pages 581-604, December.
    19. Pretnar, Nick & Olivola, Christopher Y. & Montgomery, Alan, 2021. "Two-stage Budgeting with Bounded Rationality," MPRA Paper 105356, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Benson Tsz Kin Leung, 2020. "Learning in a Small/Big World," Papers 2009.11917, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2023.
    21. Araujo, Felipe A. & Piermont, Evan, 2023. "Unawareness and risk taking: The role of context," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 208(C), pages 61-79.
    22. repec:ris:msuecw:2022_005 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Andrew Caplin & David J. Deming & Søren Leth-Petersen & Ben Weidmann, 2023. "Economic Decision-Making Skill Predicts Income in Two Countries," NBER Working Papers 31674, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    24. Chatterjee, Kalyan & Hu, Tai-Wei, 2023. "Learning with limited memory: Bayesianism vs heuristics," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C73 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Stochastic and Dynamic Games; Evolutionary Games
    • D11 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Theory
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:110:y:2020:i:12:p:3913-51. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.