IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/1905.03452.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Implications of Pricing on Social Learning

Author

Listed:
  • Itai Arieli
  • Moran Koren
  • Rann Smorodinsky

Abstract

We study the implications of endogenous pricing for learning and welfare in the classic herding model . When prices are determined exogenously, it is known that learning occurs if and only if signals are unbounded. By contrast, we show that learning can occur when signals are bounded as long as non-conformism among consumers is scarce. More formally, learning happens if and only if signals exhibit the vanishing likelihood property introduced bellow. We discuss the implications of our results for potential market failure in the context of Schumpeterian growth with uncertainty over the value of innovations.

Suggested Citation

  • Itai Arieli & Moran Koren & Rann Smorodinsky, 2019. "The Implications of Pricing on Social Learning," Papers 1905.03452, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:1905.03452
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1905.03452
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Milgrom, Paul & Roberts, John, 1982. "Limit Pricing and Entry under Incomplete Information: An Equilibrium Analysis," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(2), pages 443-459, March.
    2. Duffie, Darrell & Malamud, Semyon & Manso, Gustavo, 2014. "Information percolation in segmented markets," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 1-32.
    3. Subir Bose & Gerhard Orosel & Marco Ottaviani & Lise Vesterlund, 2006. "Dynamic monopoly pricing and herding," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 37(4), pages 910-928, December.
    4. Kyle Bagwell, 2007. "Signalling and entry deterrence: a multidimensional analysis," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 38(3), pages 670-697, September.
    5. Hann-Caruthers, Wade & Martynov, Vadim V. & Tamuz, Omer, 2018. "The speed of sequential asymptotic learning," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 383-409.
    6. Avery, Christopher & Zemsky, Peter, 1998. "Multidimensional Uncertainty and Herd Behavior in Financial Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(4), pages 724-748, September.
    7. Acemoglu, Daron & Cao, Dan, 2015. "Innovation by entrants and incumbents," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 255-294.
    8. Barrachina, Alex & Tauman, Yair & Urbano, Amparo, 2014. "Entry and espionage with noisy signals," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 127-146.
    9. Daron Acemoglu & Munther A. Dahleh & Ilan Lobel & Asuman Ozdaglar, 2011. "Bayesian Learning in Social Networks," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 78(4), pages 1201-1236.
    10. Milgrom, Paul & Roberts, John, 1982. "Predation, reputation, and entry deterrence," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 280-312, August.
    11. Philip J. Reny, 1999. "On the Existence of Pure and Mixed Strategy Nash Equilibria in Discontinuous Games," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 67(5), pages 1029-1056, September.
    12. Klier, Thomas & Linn, Joshua, 2016. "The effect of vehicle fuel economy standards on technology adoption," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 41-63.
    13. Abhijit V. Banerjee, 1992. "A Simple Model of Herd Behavior," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(3), pages 797-817.
    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. Zikai Xu, 2022. "Observational Learning with Competitive Prices," Papers 2202.06425, arXiv.org, revised May 2022.
    2. Amir Ban & Moran Koren, 2020. "Sequential Fundraising and Mutual Insurance," Papers 2005.10711, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2021.
    3. Koren, Moran & Mueller-Frank, Manuel, 2022. "The welfare costs of informationally efficient prices," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 186-196.

    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. Arieli, Itai & Koren, Moran & Smorodinsky, Rann, 2022. "The implications of pricing on social learning," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 17(4), November.
    2. Eyster, Erik & Galeotti, Andrea & Kartik, Navin & Rabin, Matthew, 2014. "Congested observational learning," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 519-538.
    3. Davide Crapis & Bar Ifrach & Costis Maglaras & Marco Scarsini, 2017. "Monopoly Pricing in the Presence of Social Learning," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(11), pages 3586-3608, November.
    4. Tristan Gagnon-Bartsch & Antonio Rosato, 2024. "Quality Is in the Eye of the Beholder: Taste Projection in Markets with Observational Learning," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 114(11), pages 3746-3787, November.
    5. Wanying Huang & Philipp Strack & Omer Tamuz, 2024. "Learning in Repeated Interactions on Networks," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 92(1), pages 1-27, January.
    6. Hui Chen & Bjorn N. Jorgensen, 2018. "Market Exit Through Divestment—The Effect of Accounting Bias on Competition," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(1), pages 164-177, January.
    7. Alex Barrachina & Yair Tauman & Amparo Urbano, 2021. "Entry with two correlated signals: the case of industrial espionage and its positive competitive effects," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 50(1), pages 241-278, March.
    8. Daron Acemoglu & Ali Makhdoumi & Azarakhsh Malekian & Asuman Ozdaglar, 2017. "Fast and Slow Learning From Reviews," NBER Working Papers 24046, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Ilai Bistritz & Nasimeh Heydaribeni & Achilleas Anastasopoulos, 2019. "Do Informational Cascades Happen with Non-myopic Agents?," Papers 1905.01327, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2022.
    10. Sushil Bikhchandani & David Hirshleifer & Omer Tamuz & Ivo Welch, 2024. "Information Cascades and Social Learning," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 62(3), pages 1040-1093, September.
    11. Alex Barrachina & Yair Tauman & Amparo Urbano Salvador, 2014. "Entry with Two Correlated Signals," Discussion Papers in Economic Behaviour 0714, University of Valencia, ERI-CES.
    12. Subir Bose & Gerhard Orosel & Marco Ottaviani & Lise Vesterlund, 2008. "Monopoly pricing in the binary herding model," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 37(2), pages 203-241, November.
    13. Parakhonyak, Alexei & Vikander, Nick, 2023. "Information design through scarcity and social learning," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    14. Belleflamme,Paul & Peitz,Martin, 2015. "Industrial Organization," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107687899.
    15. Koren, Moran & Mueller-Frank, Manuel, 2022. "The welfare costs of informationally efficient prices," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 186-196.
    16. Yuval Peres & Miklos Z. Racz & Allan Sly & Izabella Stuhl, 2017. "How fragile are information cascades?," Papers 1711.04024, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2018.
    17. Bar Ifrach & Costis Maglaras & Marco Scarsini & Anna Zseleva, 2019. "Bayesian Social Learning from Consumer Reviews," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 67(5), pages 1209-1221, September.
    18. Yiangos Papanastasiou & Kostas Bimpikis & Nicos Savva, 2018. "Crowdsourcing Exploration," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(4), pages 1727-1746, April.
    19. Buechel, Berno & Hellmann, Tim & Klößner, Stefan, 2015. "Opinion dynamics and wisdom under conformity," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 240-257.
    20. Philipp Kircher & Andrew Postlewaite, 2008. "Strategic Firms and Endogenous Consumer Emulation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(2), pages 621-661.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:arx:papers:1905.03452. 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: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    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.