IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pen/papers/13-014.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A Theory of Subjective Learning, Second Version

Author

Listed:
  • David Dillenberger

    (Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania)

  • Juan Sebastian Lleras

    (Department of Social and Decision Sciences, CMU)

  • Philipp Sadowski

    (Department of Economics, Duke University)

  • Norio Takeoka

    (Department of Economics, Yokohama National University)

Abstract

We study an individual who faces a dynamic decision problem in which the process of information arrival is unobserved by the analyst. We elicit subjective information directly from choice behavior by deriving two utility representations of preferences over menus of acts. The most general representation identifies a unique probability distribution over the set of posteriors that the decision maker might face at the time of choosing from the menu. We use this representation to characterize a notion of †more preference for flexibility†via a subjective analogue of Blackwell’s (1951, 1953) comparisons of experiments. A more specialized representation uniquely identifies information as a partition of the state space. This result allows us to compare individuals who expect to learn differently, even if they do not agree on their prior beliefs. On the extended domain of dated-menus, we show how to accommodate an individual who expects to learn gradually over time by means of a subjective filtration.

Suggested Citation

  • David Dillenberger & Juan Sebastian Lleras & Philipp Sadowski & Norio Takeoka, 2012. "A Theory of Subjective Learning, Second Version," PIER Working Paper Archive 13-014, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, revised 18 Mar 2013.
    • Handle: RePEc:pen:papers:13-014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://economics.sas.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/filevault/13-014.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dekel, Eddie & Lipman, Barton L & Rustichini, Aldo, 2001. "Representing Preferences with a Unique Subjective State Space," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(4), pages 891-934, July.
    2. Hyogo, Kazuya, 2007. "A subjective model of experimentation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 133(1), pages 316-330, March.
    3. Eddie eckel & Barton L Lipman & Aldo Rustichini & Todd Sarver, 2005. "Representing Preferences with a Unique Subjective State Space: Corrigendum," Boston University - Department of Economics - Working Papers Series WP2005-042, Boston University - Department of Economics.
    4. Eddie Dekel & Barton L Lipman & Aldo Rustichini & Todd Sarver, 2007. "Representing Preferences with a Unique Subjective State Space: A Corrigendum -super-1," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 75(2), pages 591-600, March.
    5. Kreps, David M, 1979. "A Representation Theorem for "Preference for Flexibility"," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(3), pages 565-577, May.
    6. Takeoka, Norio, 2007. "Subjective probability over a subjective decision tree," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 136(1), pages 536-571, September.
    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. Higashi, Youichiro & Hyogo, Kazuya & Takeoka, Norio, 2014. "Stochastic endogenous time preference," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 77-92.
    2. Riella, Gil, 2013. "Preference for Flexibility and Dynamic Consistency," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 148(6), pages 2467-2482.

    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. David Dillenberger & Juan Sebastian Lleras & Philipp Sadowski & Norio Takeoka, 2012. "A Theory of Subjective Learning, Third Version," PIER Working Paper Archive 13-067, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, revised 03 Sep 2013.
    2. Youichiro Higashi & Kazuya Hyogo & Gil Riella, 2020. "Dynamically Consistent Menu Preferences," KIER Working Papers 1047, Kyoto University, Institute of Economic Research.
    3. Dillenberger, David & Lleras, Juan Sebastián & Sadowski, Philipp & Takeoka, Norio, 2014. "A theory of subjective learning," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 287-312.
    4. Eddie Dekel & Barton L. Lipman & Aldo Rustichini, 2009. "Temptation-Driven Preferences," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 76(3), pages 937-971.
    5. Daniele Pennesi, 2021. "Between Commitment and Flexibility: Revealing Anticipated Regret and Elation," Working papers 071, Department of Economics, Social Studies, Applied Mathematics and Statistics (Dipartimento di Scienze Economico-Sociali e Matematico-Statistiche), University of Torino.
    6. David Dillenberger & Philipp Sadowski & Juan Sebastian Lleras & Norio Takeoka, 2012. "A Theory of Subjective Learning," PIER Working Paper Archive 12-034, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania.
    7. , & ,, 2015. "Hidden actions and preferences for timing of resolution of uncertainty," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 10(2), May.
    8. Sadowski, Philipp, 2008. "Conditional Preference for Flexibility: Eliciting Beliefs from Behavior," MPRA Paper 8614, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Philipp Sadowski, 2011. "Contingent Preference for Flexibility: Eliciting Beliefs from Behavior," Levine's Working Paper Archive 661465000000001189, David K. Levine.
    10. Higashi, Youichiro & Hyogo, Kazuya & Takeoka, Norio, 2009. "Subjective random discounting and intertemporal choice," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 144(3), pages 1015-1053, May.
    11. Barbos, Andrei, 2013. "A reference-dependent representation with subjective tastes," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 111-123.
    12. Roee Teper, 2016. "Learning the Krepsian State: Exploration Through Consumption," Working Paper 5860, Department of Economics, University of Pittsburgh.
    13. David Dillenberger & Philipp Sadowski, 2011. "Subjective Learning, Second Version," PIER Working Paper Archive 12-007, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, revised 07 Mar 2012.
    14. Piermont, Evan & Takeoka, Norio & Teper, Roee, 2016. "Learning the Krepsian state: Exploration through consumption," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 69-94.
    15. Higashi, Youichiro & Hyogo, Kazuya & Takeoka, Norio, 2014. "Stochastic endogenous time preference," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 77-92.
    16. Kalyan Chatterjee & R. Vijay Krishna, 2005. "Menu Choice, Environmental Cues and Temptation: A “Dual Self” Approach to Self-control," Levine's Working Paper Archive 784828000000000576, David K. Levine.
    17. David Dillenberger & Philipp Sadowski, 2011. "Models of Subjective Learning," PIER Working Paper Archive 11-042, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania.
    18. David Dillenberger & Juan Sebastian Lleras & Philipp Sadowski & Norio Takeoka, 2012. "A Theory of Subjective Learning," Levine's Working Paper Archive 786969000000000583, David K. Levine.
    19. Youichiro Higashi & Kazuya Hyogo & Gil Riella, 2024. "Dynamically consistent menu preferences," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 78(4), pages 1047-1074, December.
    20. Youichiro Higashi & Kazuya Hyogo, 2012. "Lexicographic expected utility with a subjective state space," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 49(1), pages 175-192, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Subjective learning; partitional learning; preference for flexibility; resolution of uncertainty; valuing more binary bets; subjective filtration; dated-menus;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D80 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - General
    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design

    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:pen:papers:13-014. 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: Administrator (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deupaus.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.