tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6837159629100463303.post3477362143443737725..comments2023-06-18T01:25:08.748-07:00Comments on Information Transfer Economics: Emergent representative agents: a means to an endJason Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12680061127040420047noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6837159629100463303.post-79562772278936300592015-10-17T12:41:16.814-07:002015-10-17T12:41:16.814-07:00Ah, the that makes sense. Thanks!Ah, the that makes sense. Thanks!Tom Brownhttp://www.google.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6837159629100463303.post-69436123386718921072015-10-17T12:37:19.976-07:002015-10-17T12:37:19.976-07:00My interpretation is that David is saying you need...My interpretation is that David is saying you need to derive the emergent representative agent -- you can't just posit it. And if you derive it from micro agents, why not just use the theory that you derived it from?<br /><br />I completely agree with that.<br /><br />And yes, the broccoli analogy is very much what this post is about. The emergent representative agent is supposed to mollify the "econ is wrong" people (who tend to be non-economists) as well as the "info theory is weird" people (most economists).<br /><br />I also thought it was fun and interesting on its own. Apparently it was interesting enough to get published in a journal in 1962.Jason Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12680061127040420047noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6837159629100463303.post-13778060419789531272015-10-16T18:20:17.097-07:002015-10-16T18:20:17.097-07:00I tried to find a good photo, but I failed. This o...I tried to find a good photo, but I failed. This one's <a href="https://www.extension.org/mediawiki/files/5/56/Getting_your_kids_to_eat_fv.jpg" rel="nofollow">OK.</a><br /><br />Maybe broccliflower is a good "baby steppe." ;^)Tom Brownhttp://www.google.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6837159629100463303.post-68577601598783954032015-10-16T17:57:35.874-07:002015-10-16T17:57:35.874-07:00Jason, perhaps we are both people of the concrete ...Jason, perhaps we are both people of the concrete steppes, but I'm more like a person of the concrete baby steppes... whereas you take two or three in a single stride. David may not be as concrete, but he has more your stride than mine.<br /><br />Let me try to paraphrase:<br /><br />David's complaint about the emergent representative agent (ERA) is that it seems to him you're postulating one that's fills the role of representative agent which is different from the micro representative agent (MRA), and he's saying that may be true, but he's not seeing the utility because he says you need to explain in what sense this ERA emerges before you can go about describing one, but once you've done that... well, that's where I get lost. I'm trying to find an analogy here to help me understand his complaint, but I'm drawing a blank.<br /><br />Moving on to your response (specifically your 3rd point): you say you agree with David that there's not much explanatory utility to the ERA. The real explanatory utility is in the information theory that allows a description of the ERA in the 1st place. The whole point of bringing up the ERA is to show that it coincides with the econ usual practice of using a representative agent (RA) (your point #1), that it does not have to "sneak around" the SMD theorem (like the MRA does: which is probably invalid) (your point #2), and that what's really important is the info theory from which the ERA was constructed (point #3), which you can tie to the econ concept of "opportunity sets." So in essence you're saying the ERA is there to help economists come to grips (in terms of things they're familiar with) with your info theory approach (which it turns out is just another way of talking about a long lost corner of econ already explored by Becker). So it's really a way of assuaging the discomfort of economists who glance at your "info equilibrium" approach and say "Nope, that's not any kind of econ we use here on Earth."<br /><br />I have an image in my mind of a parent trying to get their reluctant toddler to try cauliflower... perhaps saying "It's just like broccoli... you've had broccoli before. You *like* broccoli... it's just a different colored broccoli. You'll like it, trust us."Tom Brownhttp://www.google.comnoreply@blogger.com