Collective Sampling: An Ex Ante Perspective

Yangfan Zhou

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arXiv · 2311.05758

Collective Sampling: An Ex Ante Perspective

Yangfan Zhou

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Abstract

I study collective dynamic information acquisition. Players decide when to stop sequential sampling via a collective stopping rule, which specifies decisive coalitions that can terminate information acquisition upon agreement. I develop a methodology to characterize equilibria using an ex ante perspective. Instead of stopping strategies, players choose distributions over posterior beliefs subject to majorization constraints. Equilibrium sampling regions are characterized via a fixed-point argument based on concavification. Collective sampling generates learning inefficiencies and having more decisive coalitions typically reduces learning. I apply the model to committee search and competition in persuasion.

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Yangfan Zhou. 2023-11-09. Collective Sampling: An Ex Ante Perspective. https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.05758

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