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From posteriors to priors via cycles

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  • Rodrigues-Neto, José Alvaro

Abstract

We present new necessary and sufficient conditions for checking if a set of players' posteriors may come from a common prior. A simple diagrammatic device calculates the join and meet of players' knowledge partitions. Each cycle in the diagram has a corresponding cycle equation. Posteriors are consistent with a common prior if and only if all cycle equations are satisfied. We prove that in games of two players, where the join partition has only singletons, a common prior exists if each player's distribution of beliefs over the elements of her opponent's partition is independent of her own private information.

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  • Rodrigues-Neto, José Alvaro, 2009. "From posteriors to priors via cycles," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 144(2), pages 876-883, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jetheo:v:144:y:2009:i:2:p:876-883
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Hellman, Ziv & Samet, Dov, 2012. "How common are common priors?," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 74(2), pages 517-525.
    2. Liu, Qingmin, 2015. "Correlation and common priors in games with incomplete information," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 49-75.
    3. Hellwig, Martin, 2022. "Incomplete-information games in large populations with anonymity," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 17(1), January.
    4. Hellwig, Martin F., 2013. "From posteriors to priors via cycles: An addendum," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 118(3), pages 455-458.
    5. José Rodrigues-Neto, 2014. "Monotonic models and cycles," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 43(2), pages 403-413, May.
    6. Ziv Hellman, 2014. "Countable spaces and common priors," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 43(1), pages 193-213, February.
    7. Martin Hellwig, 2011. "Incomplete-Information Models of Large Economies with Anonymity: Existence and Uniqueness of Common Priors," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2011_08, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
    8. Rodrigues-Neto, José Alvaro, 2012. "The cycles approach," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 207-211.
    9. Fiorini, Luciana C. & Rodrigues-Neto, José A., 2017. "Self-consistency, consistency and cycles in non-partitional knowledge models," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 11-21.
    10. José A. Rodrigues‐Neto, 2015. "Monotonic Knowledge Models, Cycles, Linear Versions and Auctions with Differential, Finite Information," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 91(S1), pages 25-37, June.
    11. Luciana C. Fiorini & José A. Rodrigues-Neto, 2014. "Self-Consistency and Common Prior in Non-Partitional Knowledge Models," ANU Working Papers in Economics and Econometrics 2014-621, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics.
    12. José Alvaro Rodrigues-Neto, 2012. "Cycles of length two in monotonic models," ANU Working Papers in Economics and Econometrics 2012-587, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics.

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