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Fact-Free Learning

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Author Info

  • Enriqueta Aragones

    () (Autonomous University of Barcelona - Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC))

  • Itzhak Gilboa

    () (Eitan Berglas School of Economics, Tel Aviv University)

  • Andrew Postlewaite

    () (Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania)

  • David Schmeidler

    () (Eitan Berglas School of Economics, Tel Aviv University)

Abstract

People may be surprised by noticing certain regularities that hold in existing knowledge they have had for some time. That is, they may learn without getting new factual information. We argue that this can be partly explained by computational complexity. We show that, given a knowledge base, finding a small set of variables that obtain a certain value of R2 is computationally hard, in the sense that this term is used in computer science. We discuss some of the implications of this result and of fact-free learning in general.

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File URL: http://economics.sas.upenn.edu/system/files/working-papers/05-002.pdf
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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania in its series PIER Working Paper Archive with number 05-002.

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Length: 32 pages
Date of creation: 01 Oct 2003
Date of revision: 01 Dec 2004
Handle: RePEc:pen:papers:05-002

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Keywords: Learning; Behavioral Economics;

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References

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  1. La Porta, Rafael & Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert, 1999. "The Quality of Government," Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 222-79, April.
  2. Kreps, David M, 1979. "A Representation Theorem for "Preference for Flexibility"," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(3), pages 565-77, May.
  3. Anderlini, Luca & Felli, Leonardo, 1994. "Incomplete Written Contracts: Undescribable States of Nature," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 109(4), pages 1085-1124, November.
  4. Dekel, Eddie & Lipman, Barton L. & Rustichini, Aldo, 1998. "Recent developments in modeling unforeseen contingencies," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(3-5), pages 523-542, May.
  5. Gilboa,Itzhak & Schmeidler,David, 2001. "A Theory of Case-Based Decisions," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521003117.
  6. Itzhak Gilboa, 1990. "Philosophical Applications of Kolmogorov's Complexity Measure," Discussion Papers 923, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.
  7. 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.
  8. Aragones, E. & Gilboa, I. & Postlewaite, A. & Schmeidler, D., 2001. "Rhetoric and Analogies," Papers 2001-15, Tel Aviv.
  9. Bray, Margaret M & Savin, Nathan E, 1986. "Rational Expectations Equilibria, Learning, and Model Specification," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 54(5), pages 1129-60, September.
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Blog mentions

As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
  1. 'The Spread' is Absurd, So is Life
    by Eric Falkenstein in Falkenblog on 2011-03-30 01:42:00
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