Interested parties are welcome to attend.
Presentation Title: "Computationally Tractable Choice"
Abstract
I incorporate computational constraints into decision theory in order to capture how cognitive limitations affect behavior. I impose an axiom of computational tractability that only rules out behaviors that are thought to be fundamentally hard. I use this framework to better understand common behavioral heuristics: if choices are tractable and consistent with the expected utility axioms, then they are observationally equivalent to forms of choice bracketing. Then I show that a computationally-constrained decision maker can be objectively better off if she is willing to use heuristics that would not appear rational to an outside observer.
Contact Maciej Kotowski for information.