28 ms·

This is interesting :-) Is there any reasonably accessible literature on this topic, in particular the latter idea of not being able to estimate an agent’s uti

by tr352 6y ago

This is interesting :-) Is there any reasonably accessible literature on this topic, in particular the latter idea of not being able to estimate an agent’s utility function?

zomglings 6y ago
I'm not particularly well read in economics, and have not read anything that specifically addresses the difficulty of estimating utility. My view is rather derived from my readings on economics and related fields. The material that stands out the most in my mind are: 1. Von Neumann and Morgenstern's book (particular the sections where they develop the notion of utility) is pretty readable - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/483055.Theory_of_Games_and_Economic_Behavior https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/483055.Theory_of_Games_a... 2. The Economic Naturalist (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/629238.The_Economic_Naturalist https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/629238.The_Economic_Natu...). It is a great compilation of economic edge cases which show that the notion of utility is not so easy to capture using the standard "narrowly self-interested economic agents" world view. It requires a lot of subjective interpretation. 3. The Honest Truth about Dishonesty (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Honest_Truth_about_Dishonesty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Honest_Truth_about_Dishone...). Shows how contextually dependent utility (if it is at all quantifiable) can be. 4. The body of work around the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma#The_iterated_prisoner's_dilemma https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma#The_itera...). In particular we can see how the dynamics of simulations using rational agents diverge from the dynamics of experiments involving actual humans. This suggests that the utility assumptions used in economic analyses do not reflect whatever notion of utility that could actually apply to human behavior.

by tr352 6y ago

This is interesting :-) Is there any reasonably accessible literature on this topic, in particular the latter idea of not being able to estimate an agent’s utility function?

zomglings 6y ago

I'm not particularly well read in economics, and have not read anything that specifically addresses the difficulty of estimating utility. My view is rather derived from my readings on economics and related fields. The material that stands out the most in my mind are: 1. Von Neumann and Morgenstern's book (particular the sections where they develop the notion of utility) is pretty readable - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/483055.Theory_of_Games_and_Economic_Behavior https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/483055.Theory_of_Games_a... 2. The Economic Naturalist (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/629238.The_Economic_Naturalist https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/629238.The_Economic_Natu...). It is a great compilation of economic edge cases which show that the notion of utility is not so easy to capture using the standard "narrowly self-interested economic agents" world view. It requires a lot of subjective interpretation. 3. The Honest Truth about Dishonesty (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Honest_Truth_about_Dishonesty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Honest_Truth_about_Dishone...). Shows how contextually dependent utility (if it is at all quantifiable) can be. 4. The body of work around the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma#The_iterated_prisoner's_dilemma https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma#The_itera...). In particular we can see how the dynamics of simulations using rational agents diverge from the dynamics of experiments involving actual humans. This suggests that the utility assumptions used in economic analyses do not reflect whatever notion of utility that could actually apply to human behavior.