Theory seminar presented by Paola Manzini (U of Sussex)
19 November 2019, 12:00 pm–1:45 pm

Inferring Cognitive Heterogeneity from Aggregate Choices (joint with Valentino Dardanoni, Marco Mariotti, and Chris Tyson)
Event Information
Open to
- All
Organiser
-
Nikita Roketskiy
Location
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LG10056: Bentham House4-8 Endsleigh GardensLondonWC1H 0EGUnited Kingdom
Abstract
Theories of bounded rationality often assume a rich dataset of choices from many overlapping menus, limiting their practical applicability. In contrast, we study the problem of identifying the distribution of cognitive characteristics in a population ofagentsfromaminimaldatasetthatconsistsofaggregatechoicesharesfromasingle menu, and includes no observable covariates of any kind. With homogeneous preferences, we find that “consideration capacity” and “consideration probability”distributionscanbothberecoveredeffectivelyifthemenuissufficientlylarge. This remains true generically when tastes are heterogeneous but their distribution isknown. Whenthepreferencedistributionisunknown,weshowthatjointchoice sharedatafromthree“occasions”aregenericallysufficientforfullidentificationof the cognitive distribution, and also provide substantial information about tastes.
Paper is available
About the Speaker
Paola Manzini
at University of Sussex