It\'s not my Fault! Self-Confidence and Experimentation

Nina Hestermann and Yves Le Yaouanq ()
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Nina Hestermann: Toulouse School of Economics

No 124, Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series from CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition

Abstract: We study the inference and experimentation problem of an agent in a situation where the outcomes depend on the individual\'s intrinsic ability and on an external variable. We analyze the mistakes made by decision-makers who hold inaccurate prior beliefs about their ability. Overconfident individuals take too much credit for their successes and excessively blame external factors if they fail. They are too easily dissatisfied with their environment, which leads them to experiment in variable environments and revise their self-confidence over time. In contrast, underconfident decision-makers might be trapped in low-quality environments and incur perpetual utility losses.

Keywords: overconfidence; attribution bias; experimentation; learning. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D83 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-11-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp, nep-hpe, nep-mic and nep-upt
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: It's not my Fault! Self-Confidence and Experimentation (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rco:dpaper:124

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