Social Learning

Abstract

Social learning model dynamic situations of incomplete information, where agents endowed with private information act upon observing other agents' actions. The main focus of social learning is to (i) identify situations where the private information held by agents percolates through agents, in the sense that all privately available information is eventually reflected in later agents' decisions, and to (ii) identify features of the environment that foster such learning. 

There is no universal theory, but a collection of models providing consistent insights.  The course will be organized around the detailed analysis of influential models, followed by a discussion of variations and applications. 

Content

A tentative plan is the following:

Lecture 1: Sequential social learning: basic insights and results.

Lecture 2: Sequential social learning: variants and applications.

Lecture 3: Learning on networks.

Lecture 4: Optimal design of the environment.