IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/isfiwp/275723.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Preferring Simplicity

Author

Listed:
  • Gilboa, Itzhak
  • Samuelson, Larry

Abstract

This paper examines circumstances under which a preference for simplicity enhances the eectiveness of inductive reasoning. We con- sider a game in which Fate chooses a data generating process and agents are characterized by inference rules that may or may not fa- vor simpler theories over more complex ones. The basic intuition is that agents who do not prefer simple theories to more complex ones are doomed to \overt" the data and therefore engage in ineective learning. The analysis places no computational or memory limitations on the agents|a preference for simplicity emerges in the presence of unlimited reasoning powers.

Suggested Citation

  • Gilboa, Itzhak & Samuelson, Larry, 2009. "Preferring Simplicity," Foerder Institute for Economic Research Working Papers 275723, Tel-Aviv University > Foerder Institute for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:isfiwp:275723
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.275723
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/275723/files/4-2009.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.275723?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Herbert A. Simon, 1955. "A Behavioral Model of Rational Choice," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 69(1), pages 99-118.
    2. Gilboa, Itzhak & Schmeidler, David, 2010. "Simplicity and likelihood: An axiomatic approach," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 145(5), pages 1757-1775, September.
    3. Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky, 2013. "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & William T Ziemba (ed.), HANDBOOK OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING Part I, chapter 6, pages 99-127, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Daskalova, Vessela & Vriend, Nicolaas J., 2020. "Categorization and coordination," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    2. Daskalova, Vessela & Vriend, Nicolaas J., 2020. "Categorization and coordination," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. , & ,, 2012. "Subjectivity in inductive inference," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 7(2), May.
    2. Peter John Robinson & W. J. Wouter Botzen, 2022. "Setting descriptive norm nudges to promote demand for insurance against increasing climate change risk," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 47(1), pages 27-49, January.
    3. Daniel Fonseca Costa & Francisval Carvalho & Bruno César Moreira & José Willer Prado, 2017. "Bibliometric analysis on the association between behavioral finance and decision making with cognitive biases such as overconfidence, anchoring effect and confirmation bias," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 111(3), pages 1775-1799, June.
    4. Christina Leuker & Thorsten Pachur & Ralph Hertwig & Timothy J. Pleskac, 2019. "Do people exploit risk–reward structures to simplify information processing in risky choice?," Journal of the Economic Science Association, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 5(1), pages 76-94, August.
    5. Marianne Bertrand & Dean S. Karlan & Sendhil Mullainathan & Eldar Shafir & Jonathan Zinman, 2005. "What's Psychology Worth? A Field Experiment in the Consumer Credit Market," Working Papers 918, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    6. Newark, Daniel A., 2014. "Indecision and the construction of self," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 125(2), pages 162-174.
    7. Eduard Marinov, 2017. "The 2017 Nobel Prize in Economics," Economic Thought journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 6, pages 117-159.
    8. Gerd Gigerenzer, 1997. "Bounded Rationality: Models of Fast and Frugal Inference," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 133(II), pages 201-218, June.
    9. Committee, Nobel Prize, 2017. "Richard H. Thaler: Integrating Economics with Psychology," Nobel Prize in Economics documents 2017-1, Nobel Prize Committee.
    10. Zamri Ahmad & Haslindar Ibrahim & Jasman Tuyon, 2017. "Behavior of fund managers in Malaysian investment management industry," Qualitative Research in Financial Markets, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 9(3), pages 205-239, August.
    11. Pauline de Pechpeyrou & Béatrice Parguel & Aîda Mimouni & Pierre Desmet, 2006. "Valeur et sincérité perçues d'une promotion multi-mécanismes," Post-Print halshs-00145916, HAL.
    12. Yan Li & David Ahlstrom, 2020. "Risk-taking in entrepreneurial decision-making: A dynamic model of venture decision," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 899-933, September.
    13. Giuseppe Pernagallo & Benedetto Torrisi, 2020. "A theory of information overload applied to perfectly efficient financial markets," Review of Behavioral Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 14(2), pages 223-236, October.
    14. Romero-Ramírez, Erick & Venegas-Martínez, Francisco & Trejo-García, José Carlos, 2019. "Revisitando los modelos de Birnbaum-Chávez y de Diamond-Dybvig sobre corridas bancarias ¿Las corridas dependen sólo de fundamentos económicos o también de factores psicológicos?," eseconomía, Escuela Superior de Economía, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, vol. 14(50), pages 7-40, Primer se.
    15. Lory Barile & John Cullis & Philip Jones, 2024. "“Optimal Honesty” in the Context of Fiscal Crimes," Economies, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-11, September.
    16. Siegfried Berninghaus & Werner Güth & M. Vittoria Levati & Jianying Qiu, 2006. "Satisficing in sales competition: experimental evidence," Papers on Strategic Interaction 2006-32, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Strategic Interaction Group.
    17. Yang, Bijou & Lester, David, 1995. "New directions for economics," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 433-446.
    18. Stefano DellaVigna, 2009. "Psychology and Economics: Evidence from the Field," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(2), pages 315-372, June.
    19. Schilirò, Daniele & Graziano, Mario, 2011. "Scelte e razionalità nei modelli economici: un'analisi multidisciplinare [Choices and rationality in economic models: a multidisciplinary analysis]," MPRA Paper 31910, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Chavas, Jean-Paul & Barham, Bradford L., 2007. "On the Microeconomics of Diversification under Uncertainty and Learning," Staff Papers 92141, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Financial Economics;

    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:ags:isfiwp:275723. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fotauil.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.