Ambiguity, data and preferences for information A case-based approach

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Eichberger, Juergen; Guerdjikova, Ani
• 署名单位: Ruprecht Karls University Heidelberg; CY Cergy Paris Universite
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0531
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jet.2013.04.002
• 发表日期: 2013
• 页码: 1433-1462
• 关键词: Case-based decisions; ambiguity; Similarity; optimism; pessimism; Preferences for information precision

摘要

We model decision making under ambiguity based on available data. Decision makers express preferences over actions and data sets. We derive an alpha-max-min representation of preferences, in which beliefs combine objective characteristics of the data (number and frequency of observations) with subjective features of the decision maker (similarity of observations and perceived ambiguity). We identify the subjectively perceived ambiguity and separate it into ambiguity due to a limited number of observations and ambiguity due to data heterogeneity. The special case of no ambiguity provides a behavioral foundation for beliefs as similarity-weighted frequencies as in Billot et al. (2005) [3]. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.