Mini-Courses

2019-2020

We periodically invite to campus distinguished scholars to give mini-courses on a topic of current interest. These mini-courses are open to all members of the Northwestern community as well as visitors from other Colleges and Universities.

Last updated: 2/13/20



Ignacio Esponda, Associate Professor and Walter J. Mead Chair of Economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, will present a mini-course on "Learning and Equilibrium under Misspecification" during his visit to Northwestern the week of February 17th.

The mini-course will take place over three sessions (all in the Kellogg Global Hub Crown Family Boardroom, room 5101):
Monday, February 17th, 3:30-5:00pm
Tuesday, February 18th, 3:30-5:00pm
Thursday, February 20th, 3:30-5:00pm

The lecture will be divided into six chapters. For each chapter, references are included and the recommended readings are highlighetd with a (*).

Chapter 1. Fictitious play.
Reading:
(*) Fudenberg and Levine (1998), The theory of learning in games, Chapter 2.

Chapter 2. Stochastic fictitious play.
Readings:
(*) Fudenberg and Levine (1998), The theory of learning in games, Chapter 4. Fudenberg and Kreps (1993), � Learning to play Bayesian games,� Games and Economic Behavior. Benaim and Hirsch (1999), �Mixed equilibria and dynamical systems arising from fictitious play in perturbed games,� Games and Economic Behavior. Borkar (2008), Stochastic approximation: A dynamical systems viewpoint.

Chapter 3. Self-confirming equilibrium.
Readings:
(*) Fudenberg and Levine (1998), The theory of learning in games, Chapters 6 & 7. Fudenberg and Levine (1993), �Self-confirming equilibrium,� Econometrica. Dekel, Fudenberg and Levine (2003), �Learning to Play Bayesian Games,� in Games and Economic Behavior. Esponda (2008), �Information Feedback in First-Price Auctions,� RAND Journal of Economics.

Chapter 4. Cursed and behavioral equilibrium.
(*) Esponda (2008), �Behavioral equilibrium in economies with adverse selection,� American Economic Review. Eyster and Rabin (2005), �Cursed equilibrium,� Econometrica. Jehiel (2005), �Analogy-based expectation equilibrium,� Journal of Economic Theory. Jehiel and Koessler (2008), �Revisiting games of incomplete information with analogy-based expectations,� Games and Economic Behavior. Spiegler (2011), Bounded rationality in industrial organization.

Chapter 5. Berk-Nash equilibrium.
(*) Esponda and Pouzo (2016), �Berk-Nash equilibrium: A framework for modeling agents with misspecified models,� Econometrica. Heidhues, Koszegi, and Strack (2018), �Unrealistic expectations and misguided learning,� Econometrica. Spiegler (2016) �Bayesian networks and boundedly rational expectations,� Quarterly Journal of Economics. Esponda and Pouzo (2019), �Equilibrium in misspecified Markov decision processes,� working paper.

Chapter 6. Dynamics.
(*) Esponda, Pouzo, and Yamamoto (2019), �Asymptotic behavior of Bayesian learners with misspecified models,� working paper. Heidhues, Koszegi, and Strack (2019), "Convergence in misspecified learning models with endogenous actions,� working paper. Frick, Iijima, and Ishii (2019), �Stability and robustness in misspecified learning models,� working paper.

For information on past mini-courses,