Social learning with coordination motives

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Song, Yangbo; Zhang, Jiahua
• 署名单位: The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen; South China University of Technology
• 刊物名称: GAMES AND ECONOMIC BEHAVIOR
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0899-8256
• DOI: 10.1016/j.geb.2020.06.002
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 81-100
• 关键词: Social learning; herding; externalities; COORDINATION; connectivity

摘要

We study observational learning among agents with coordination motives. On a discrete time line, communities of agents receive private information about an uncertain state, observe some predecessors' actions, and then take their own action. An agent's payoff is both state-dependent and increasing in the number of her peers taking the same action as hers. We find that connectivity between observations is the key determinant of the equilibrium pattern of information aggregation. When observations are connected, coordination motives inevitably lead to herding even when private beliefs are unbounded; when observations are separated, asymptotic learning becomes achievable. Herding can also be eliminated by making private information public within each community, and reduced by making observation endogenous and costly. (C) 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.