May 2008

The Two-Period Rational Inattention Model: Accelerations and Analyses

Kurt F. Lewis

Abstract:

This paper demonstrates the properties of and a solution method for the more general two-period Rational Inattention model of Sims (2006). It is shown that the corresponding optimization problem is convex and can be solved very quickly. This paper also demonstrates a computational tool well-suited to solving Rational Inattention models and further illustrates a critique raised in Sims (2006) regarding Rational Inattention models whose solutions assume parametric formulations rather than solve for their optimally-derived, non-parametric counterparts.

Full paper (Screen Reader Version)

Keywords: Rational inattention, information-processing constraints, numerical optimization

PDF: Full Paper

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Last Update: October 19, 2020