scispace - formally typeset
Journal ArticleDOI

How can complex economic behavior be investigated? The example of the ignorant monopolist revisited

Ulrich Witt
- 01 Jul 1986 - 
- Vol. 31, Iss: 3, pp 173-188
TLDR
In this article, the problem of the initially ignorant monopolist is chosen as one who has to adapt in pricing, capacity, and output to the observed realization of a stochastic demand process.
Abstract
The theory of economic decision-making behavior at the level of the organization is reexamined and developed, while allowing for more complex conditions than usually assumed. As an example, the problem of the initially ignorant monopolist is chosen as one who has to adapt in pricing, capacity, and output to the observed realization of a stochastic demand process. In the tradition of computer-based simulation approaches to the theory of the firm's behavior, an extended modeling procedure is proposed. The intricacies involved in the attempt to test hypotheses empirically on complex economic behavior are discussed, as well as test records obtained in laboratory experimentation with the ignorant monopolist's problem.

read more

Citations
More filters
Journal Article

Dynamic pricing and learning: Historical origins, current research, and new directions

TL;DR: A brief introduction to the historical origins of quantitative research on pricing and demand estimation is provided, point to different subfields in the area of dynamic pricing, and an in-depth overview of the available literature on dynamic pricing and learning is provided.
Journal ArticleDOI

Dynamic pricing and learning: historical origins, current research, and new directions

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide a brief introduction to the historical origins of quantitative research on pricing and demand estimation, point to different subfields in the area of dynamic pricing, and provide an in-depth overview of the available literature on dynamic pricing and learning.
Journal ArticleDOI

Testing Behavioral Simulation Models by Direct Experiment

TL;DR: This paper shows how direct experiment can be used to confirm or disconfirm the decision rules in simulation models, and demonstrates the promise of experimental methods as a complementary approach to econometrics in testing simulation models.
Book ChapterDOI

An experimental study of adaptive behavior in an oligopolistic market game

TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider an oligopolistic market game, where the players are competing firms in the same market of a homogeneous consumption good, and the consumer side is represented by a fixed demand function.
Book ChapterDOI

Why Are We Simulating Anyway? Some Answers from Economics

TL;DR: It is argued that, even taking the economic definition of rigour as given, simulation is actually more rigourous than mathematical modelling in several important respects.
References
More filters
Book

A Behavioral Theory of the Firm

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present an overview of basic concepts in the Behavioral Theory of the Firm, and present a specific price and output model for a specific type of products. But they do not discuss the relationship between the two concepts.
Posted Content

A Behavioral Theory of the Firm

TL;DR: In this article, the authors advocate a theory based on empirical observation of actual firm decision-making, which provides a theory of decision making within business organizations, contrary to the economic theory of the firm, which sees firms as profit-maximizing entities.
Book

Computing Machinery and Intelligence

TL;DR: If the meaning of the words “machine” and “think” are to be found by examining how they are commonly used it is difficult to escape the conclusion that the meaning and the answer to the question, “Can machines think?” is to be sought in a statistical survey such as a Gallup poll.
Book

Optimal Statistical Decisions

TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a survey of probability theory in the context of sample spaces and decision problems, including the following: 1.1 Experiments and Sample Spaces, and Probability 2.2.3 Random Variables, Random Vectors and Distributions Functions.
Journal ArticleDOI

Behavioral Decision Theory

TL;DR: This article surveys the entire field asking, what is known, what good is it, and what else must we learn from it, focusing on work integrating research describing how people do make decisions with normative work that prescribes how people should make decisions.