Itzhak Gilboa () (Eitan Berglas School of Economics, Tel Aviv University and HEC, Paris) Andrew Postlewaite () (Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania) David Schmeidler () (Tel-Aviv University and Ohio State University)
Additional information is available for the following
registered author(s):
Economic theory reduces the concept of rationality to internal consistency. As far as beliefs are concerned, rationality is equated with having a prior belief over a “Grand State Space”, describing all possible sources of uncertainties. We argue that this notion is too weak in some senses and too strong in others. It is too weak because it does not distinguish between rational and irrational beliefs. Relatedly, the Bayesian approach, when applied to the Grand State Space, is inherently incapable of describing the formation of prior beliefs. On the other hand, this notion of rationality is too strong because there are many situations in which there is not sufficient information for an individual to generate a Bayesian prior. It follows that the Bayesian approach is neither sufficient not necessary for the rationality of beliefs.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania in its series PIER Working Paper Archive with number
08-043.
Find related papers by JEL classification: B4 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology D8 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Enriqueta Aragones & Itzhak Gilboa & Andrew Postlewaite & David Schmeidler, 2003.
"Fact-Free Learning,"
PIER Working Paper Archive
05-002, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, revised 01 Dec 2004.
[Downloadable!]
Enriqueta Aragones & Itzhak Gilboa & Andrew Postlewaite & David Schmeidler, 2003.
"Fact-Free Learning,"
PIER Working Paper Archive
03-023, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania.
[Downloadable!]