Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Manski JEP 2000 Economic Analysis of Social Interactions


Charles F. Manski Journal of Economic Perspectives 2000

Empirical research on social interactions is in a weak state.
Nonmarket interactions

General competitive equilibrium-- economic agents interact only through market prices. nonmarket interactions are not phenomena of intrinsic interest. They are problems of incomplete markets that may prevent the economy from achieving a social optimum. Welfare economics prescribed that the externalities created by nonmarket interactions should, if possible, be eliminated by setting property rights that would permit trade to take place.

non-cooperative game theory: encourages economists to see all interactions as games, with markets as special cases. รจ phenomena as far from traditional economic concerns as social norms

Labor economics has developed from a field that studies wages of workers to the decision of families and households. Much of the research has considered family or household as one utility-maximizing entity and thus abstract from the interactions among the members of the entity.  It is useful to consider members have different objectives.

The action of an agent can affect the actions of other agents through three channels: constraints, expectations and preferences.
Constraints: congestion analysis. The decisions of agents to engage in some activities collectively determine their costs, which in turn determine the activity bundles that are feasible for agents to choose.
Expectations: An agent can acquire information from the actions of other people and sometimes with information on corresponding outcomes as well.  The information help the agent form expectations and hence make decisions. What are the outcomes of certain actions. Information cascade serves as an example of interaction through expectations.
Observational learning generates expectations interactions.

Preference: conformity.
(Becker 2000) use the average of a decision variable in a society as a proxy for social norms which deviation causes a decrease in utility.
In noncooperative game theory , agents interact through preferences, because the utility that each agent receives depends on the actions chosen by other agents.
On which side to drive… is an example

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Conventions

Conventions can be considered as information of previous actions taken by forerunners.

Because the behavioral model is incomplete, actions need to be modeled as random variables.

No one intended the outcome; it arises because people optimize locally and do not worry about the effect of their actions on the long-run properties of the system.

Young 1998 Individual Strategy and Social Structure

social institutions are shaped by the cumulative impact of many individuals interacting with one another over long periods of time.

the features are determined to a considerable degree byt the accumulation of historical precedents, that is, by the decisions of many individuls who were concerned only with making the best trade at the moment, not with the impact of their decisions on the long-run development of that market.

Eventually one form becomes standard and customary for a given type of transaction, not necessarily because it is optimal, abut because it serves the purpose reasonably well and it is what everyone has come to expect. It is now an institution that coordinates behaviors, and to deviate from it would be costly.


No one willed them into being. They are what they are due to the accumulation of precedent; they emerged from experimentation and historical accident.

Equilibrium can be understood only within a dynamic framework that explains how it comes about.

"Neoclassical economics describes they way the world looks once the dust has settled; we are interested in how the dust goes about settling. The business of settling may have considerable bearing on how things look afterwards.

Monday, July 30, 2012

Epstein (CE 2001) Learning to be thoughtless: social norms and individual computation

Individual thought (computing) is often inversely related to the strength of a social norm.

Two features of social conventions
1. self-enforcing
2. once entrenched, we conform without thinking about it

The author mistakenly attribute the features of individual habits to social conventions. We do something without thinking about it because we've already formed a habit of taking the action, be it a social convention or not.

The strength of a norm is represented by the variance of the actions taken by individuals. The disutility of deviating from a social norm is related to the strength of that norm.  


when there is no time to think or not enough information based on which we can draw conclusion, we usually do what most others will do

do whatever everyone else is doing
1. some one may have relevant information that you don't know
(2. comparative performance is determinant in evolution)


we can use a sampling size less than n...

agent-based model is a generative model

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

This is a world of tradeoffs, not solutions. And whatever trade-off is decided upon will still leave unmet needs.

Nothing is a "need" categorically, regardless of how urgent it may be to have at particular times and places and in particular amounts.

By its very nature as a study of the use of scarce resources which have alternative uses, economics is about incremental trade-offs--not about "needs" or "solutions."

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Evolutionary process can be considered as a rationing process. The scarce resources to be rationed are opportunities to survive. The criterion for discriminating among genes to determine which will get the chance to survive.

Competition is actually between genes.Animals are just tools genes use to compete with each other.

This statement ma make use feel desperate. As humans, we always want to be in control. It is hard for us to accept the fact that we are just tools.

Co-evolution of different genes.

Saturday, July 21, 2012


The truth lies within you.

Be the miracle for which you pray, be the strength for which you call out, be the love for which you yearn, and be the change you which to see. Be it!

Be all that you seek for this world and end your search at last, knowing that everything for which you looked, you always possessed, but simply could not experience until you gave it away.

Truth is truth. It can neither be proven nor disproven. It simply is.

So long as you are still worried about what others think of you, you are owned by them. Only when you require no approval from outside yourself can you won yourself.

It is not nearly so important how well a message is received as how well it is sent. You teach what you have to learn.

Seek only to be genuine. Strive to be sincere. Do what you can do. Then let it rest.

Guilt is the feeling that keeps you stuck in who you are not. Guilt is a blight upon the land--the poison that kills the plant.

Love and awareness are your true friends.

Fear only paralyzes, while consciousness mobilizes.

Blessed are the fearless, for they shall know God.

When I want for you what you want for you, then I truly love you. When I want for you what I want for you, then I am loving Me, through you. For love chooses naught for itself, but only seeks to make possible the choices of the beloved other.

All good things come to those who wait.

Deciding ahead of time what you choose to be produces that in your experience.
What you act as if you are, you become.
Everything you do, do out of sincerity. Natural Law requires the body, mind and spirit to be united n thought, word and action for the process of creation to work.

Whatever you choose for yourself, give to another.

When you give something to another with purity of heart--because you see that they want it, need it, and should have it--then you will discover that you have it to give. And this is a grand discovery.

When you want something, give it away.

Be wisdom, and you will have it. What is the fastest way to "be" wisdom? Cause another to be wise.

Nothing can happen in your life which in not a precisely perfect opportunity for you to heal something, create something, or experience something that you wish to heal, create or experience in order to be Who You Really Are.

If you want your life to settle down, to stop bringing you such a wide variety of experiences, there's a way to do that. Simply stop changing your mind so often about Who You Are, and Who You Choose to Be.

Nothing escapes perfection in God's world.

The design of your life--the people, places and events in it--have all been perfectly created by the perfect creator of perfection itself: you. And Me...in, as, and through you.

If all you desired is what your soul desired, everything would be every simple.

Mark Twain ""When I was 19, my father knew nothing. But when I was 35, I was amazed at how much the Old Man had learned."

Truth is often uncomfortable. It is only comforting to those who do not wish to ignore it. Then, truth becomes not only comforting, but inspiring.

Act as if you were separate from nothing, and no one, and you will heal your world tomorrow.

I am in every flower, every rainbow, every star in the heavens, and everything in and on every planet rotating around every star.

I am the whisper of the wind, the warmth of your sun, the incredible individuality and the extraordinary perfection of every snowflake.

I am the majesty in the soaring flight of eagles, and the innocence of the doe in the field; the courage of lions, the wisdom of the ancient ones.

lighthearted.

Thought control is the highest form of prayer. Therefore, think only on good things, and righteous. Dwell not in negativity and darkness. And even in moments when things look bleak--especially in those moments--see only perfection, express only gratefulness, and then imagine only what manifestation of perfection you choose next.

In this formula is found tranquility. In this process is found peace. In this awareness is found joy.


Your perspective creates your thoughts, and your thoughts create everything. Assume a different perspective and you will have a different thought about everything. In this way you will have learned to control your thought, and, in the creation of your experience, controlled thought is everything. Some people call this constant prayer.

If you imagined that the controlling and directing of your thoughts is the highest form of prayer, you would think only on good things, and righteous.

Move to a state of total awareness. Then belief will no longer be necessary. Complete knowing will work its wonders.

God seeks to prove Itself to no one, for God has no need to do that.

All of this, all of this, has been made possible because of their faith. Because of their knowing. Because of their immutable clarity about how things are, and how they are meant to be.

Honoring your guru is not giving your power away. It is getting your power. For when you honor the guru, when you praise your master teacher, what you say is, "I see you." And what you see in another, you can begin to see in yourself.

There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

As soon as you imagine that you know the answer, you do. In those moments during which you experience yourself being "revealed" to yourself--whether these are what you call out-of-body experiences, or dreams or magic moments of wakefulness when you are greeted by crystal clarity--what has happened is that you have simply slipped into "remembering." You are remembering what you have already created. And there rememberings can be very powerful. They can produce a personal epiphany.

Act out your knowingness in every moment. Keep acting on what you know, rather than what the world of illusion is showing you.

Cause another to remember. That which you wish for yourself, give it to another. The longer you keep on doing it, the less you will have to do it. The more you send this message to another, the less you will have to send it to your Self.

Go inside. Search your place of inner wisdom. See what this calls on you to do. Then do it.

Most important of all, do not be afraid. In all things, see the perfection.

Celebrate! Celebrate life! Celebrate Self! Celebrate the predictions! Celebrate God! Celebrate! Play the game. Celebrate the perfection! Smile and celebrate and see only the perfection, and that which others call the imperfection will not touch you in any way which is imperfect for you.

Face the future fearlessly, understanding The Process and seeing the perfection of all of it.

The first step in developing psychic "power" is to know you have it, and to use it. Pay attention to every hunch you have, every feeling you feel, every intuitive "hit" you experience, Pay attention. Then, act on what you "know." Don't let you mind talk you out of it. Don't let your fear pull you away from it.
The more that you act on your intuition fearlessly, the more your intuition will serve you. It was always there, only now you're paying attention to it.

Three rules of psychic phenomena: 1. All thought is energy. 2. All things are in motion. 3. All time is now.

Intuition is the ear of the soul. The soul is the only instrument sensitive enough to "puck up" life's faintest vibrations, to “feel” these energies, to sense these waves in the field, and to interpret them.

The psychic has learned not to question what he's "thinking" or suddenly "seeing" or "feeling" but merely to allow it to "come through" as untouched as possible.

It is all a question of a perception. When you change your perception, you change your thought, and your thought creates your reality.

Even before you ask, I will have answered.

You don't always get what you ask, but you always get what you create. Creation follows thought, which follows perception.

All caused effect is ultimately experienced by the Self. Whatever you cause another to experience, you will one day experience. What goes around, comes around. Do unto others as you would have it done unto you,

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.

Love is the best "medium" of communication.

Life cannot give itself to you if you do not understand death. You must do more than understand it. You must love it, even as you love life.

Your time with each person would be glorified if you thought it was your last time with that person. Your experience of each moment would be enhanced beyond measure if you thought it was the last such moment. Your refusal to contemplate your own death leads to your refusal to contemplate your own life.

Nothing is painful which you understand is not real
Nothing is painful the moment you understand that nothing is real.
Death is never an end, but always a beginning. 
As you watch your own life roll out before you, do not yourself become unraveled. Keep your Self together! See the illusion! Enjoy it! But do not become it!

You are not the illusion, but the creator of it.
You are in this world, but not of it.
So use your illusion of death. Use it! Allow it to be the key that opens you to more of life.

Always remember, you are not the flower, nor are you even the fruit. You are the tree.

Glorify what you are today, yet do not condemn what you were yesterday, nor preclude what you could become tomorrow.

Enlightenment begins with acceptance, without judgment of “what is”.

Remember, you are a three-part being, with seven chakra centers. When you respond to one another from all three parts, and all seven centers, at the same time, then you have the peak experience you are looking for—that you have been created for!

When you are not being whole, you are being less than yourself.
Whatever you are doing, do it as a whole being; as the whole being you are.
Raise your energy, your life force, to the highest level possible in every moment, and you will be elevated.

When you are in readiness, you are in wakefulness. A smile can take you there. A simple smile. Just stop everything for one moment, and smile. At nothing. Just because it feels good. Just because your heart knows a secret. And because your soul knows what the secret is. Smile at that. Smile a lot. It will cure whatever ails you.

Breathe. Breathe long and deep. Breathe slowly and gently. Breathe in the soft , sweet nothingness of life, so full of energy, so full of love. It is God’s love you are breathing. Breathe deeply, and you can feel it. Breathe very, very deeply, and the love will make you cry. For joy.

Words are the least reliable form of communication.

Silences hold the secrets. So the sweetest sound is the sound of silence. This is the song of the soul.
If you believe the noises of the world rather than the silences of our soul, you will be lost.

Use your life as a meditation, and all the events in it. Walk in wakefulness, not as one asleep. Move with mindfulness, not mindlessly, and do not tarry in doubt and fear, neither in guilt nor self-recrimination, yet reside in permanent splendor in the assurance that you are grandly loved.

For your home is in My heart, and Mine in yours.

Do not try to solve all the mysteries. Not at one time, anyway. Give the universe a chance. It will unfold itself in due course. Enjoy the experience of becoming.

What you call the mind is real an energy.

Divine Dichotomy holds that it is possible for two apparently contradictory truths to exist simultaneously in the same space.

All life is a vibration.

The Father of all is pure thought.

Be the source of love which I Am in the lives of all others. Do unto others as you would have it done unto you.

You cannot “lose” that which you give away.

You were born with the creative power of the universe at the tip of your tongue.

As thou has believed, so be it done unto you.
You teach what you have to learn.

Public declaration is the highest form of visioning. Live the grandest version of the greatest vision you ever had about Who You Are. Begin the living of it by declaring it. Publicly.

I am the life and the way.
All these things come to Me from the Father. Without the Father, I am nothing.
I and the Father are One.

There is only one moment, and that is the eternal moment of Now
You’re returning now to “living lightly.” You’re lightening up. This is what is meant by enlightenment.

Loving everyone full out is the most joyful thing you can do.
Any attempt to restrict the natural expressions of love is a denial of the experience of freedom—and thus a denial of the soul itself. For the soul is freedom personifies.

When making any decision, it is important to make sure the right question is being answered.
You will seek freedom, unlimitedness, and eternality in every experience of love You are life expressing life, love expressing love, God expressing God.

God Life Love Unlimited Eternal Free

Fear is False Evidence Appearing Real. It is that which you are not.

Not that one person is more special to you than another, but that the way you choose to demonstrate with one person the depth of love you have for all people—and for life itself—is unique to that person alone.
Do you know why no two snowflakes are alike? Because it is impossible for them to be. “Creation” is not “duplication,” and the Creator can only create.
All people are One, yet no two people are alike. You could not, therefore, love two people in the same way if you tried—and you would never want to, because love is a unique response to that which is unique.

True love is always free, and obligation cannot exist in the space of love.

Tell and live your truth.
Creative beings create their feelings, rather than experiencing them.
Until you can create your future, you cannot predict your future. Until you can predict your future, you cannot promise anything truthfully about it.

A master is a person who—quite literally—knows what he is doing. She also knows why.

Betrayal of yourself in order not to betray another is betrayal nonetheless. It I the highest betrayal.

More damage has been done to others by persons leading lives of quiet desperation than ever was done by persons freely doing what they wanted to do.
When you give the other person their freedom, you give yourself freedom as well.
What you give to another, you give to your Self. What goes around, comes around
There is no need to worry about what you are going to “get back.” There is only a need to worry about what you are going to
give out.” Life is about creating the highest quality giving, not the highest quality getting.

In the New Culture “success” will be measured by how much you cause others to amass.

The basic instinct of all living things is to express uniqueness, not sameness. Equality of opportunity is what is required for this, not equality in fact. This is called fairness.
Love has no requirements. That’s what makes it love.
When you are in a relationship with another, that relationship has only one purpose. It exists as a vehicle for you to decide and to declare, to create and to express, to experience and to fulfill your highest notion of Who You Really Are.
Start with yourself. You will put yourself first in these matters. If you are seeking to be love, you will be doing loving things with others, for you Self—so that you can actualize and experience your grandest idea about your Self and Who You Really Are

All the world’s a stage, and the people, the places.
To be or not to be, that is the question.
To thine own Self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.

It is much more difficult to free someone than to control them. When you control someone, you get what you want. When you free someone, they get what they want.

Nothing happens against the will of God.

You are in this world, but not of it.

You can tell how highly a person or society has evolved by what that being or society calls “pleasure. And by what it declares to serve it.
You are in the act of defining your Self right now.
You are the life and the way. The world will follow you. It is simply The Way It Is. Your world will follow your idea about yourself. Ever it has been, ever it will be. First comes your thought about yourself, then follows the outer world of physical manifestation.
What you think, you create. What you create, you become. What you become, you express. What you express, you experience. What you experience, you are. What you are you think. The circle is complete.

Unity is the truth. Separatism is the illusion.
The master knows that denial is for those who are choosing to have the illusion continue. Acceptance is for those who choose now for the illusion to end. Acceptance, proclamation, demonstration. Those are the three steps to God.
The master’s role is to lead others to mastery. Seeing the illusion allows the master to step outside of it.
Advanced technology without advanced thought creates not advancement, but demise.

Justice is an act, not punishment for an act. Justice is an action, not a reaction.
You have to raise consciousness before you can change consciousness.

Think outside the box.

Achieving should be defined as “doing what brings value” not “ doing what brings ‘fame’ and ‘fortune,’ whether it is of value or not.”
See everyone as you.
It is the mark of a primitive culture to imagine that simplicity is barbarian, and complexity is highly advanced.
The greatest complexity is the greatest simplicity. A complex system is utterly elegant in its Simplicity.

Highly evolved beings: 1. Observe fully 2. Communicate truthfully.
The degree to which a species—or a relationship between members of the same species—has evolved is demonstrated by the degree to which beings require the use of “words” to convey feelings, desires or information.
Caring creates communication.
Where there is deep love, words are virtually unnecessary. The more words you have to use with each other, the less time you must be taking to care for each other, because caring creates communication.
Ultimately, all real communication is about truth. And ultimately, the only real truth is love. That is why, when love is present, so is communication. And when communication is difficult, it is a sign that love is not fully present.

The light of truth will forever show the way.

What you resist, persists. Only what you hold can disappear.
True clarity can come only when someone is willing to notice: There is something I do not know, the knowing of which could change everything. Werner Erhard
If you saw you as God sees you, you would smile a lot.
Observe. Observe. OBSERVE. See to observe more.

Life resolves itself in the process of life itself. Werner Erhard
Nothing matters means that nothing turns into matter except as we choose for it to.

In everything, be cause. Just because. That is the only reason to do anything.
There’s nothing I have to have, there’s nothing I have to do, and there’s nothing I have to be, except exactly what I’m being right now. What you experience yourself having or doing will spring from your being—not lead you to it.
The way to “get there” is to “be there.” Just be where you choose to get! It’s that simple. There’s nothing you have to do.
Truth is the body, and joy is the blood, of God, who is love. Truth. Joy. Love. There three are interchangeable.