Lauren Larrouy | University of Nice is Sophia Antipolis, Nice, France (original) (raw)
Papers by Lauren Larrouy
Springer Studies in the History of Economic Thought
Our thesis proposes to change the ontology and methodology of game theory, appraising games as th... more Our thesis proposes to change the ontology and methodology of game theory, appraising games as the understanding of the players’ strategic reasoning process. Our contribution is based on an interdisciplinary approach for a reassessment of the kind of intersubjectivity involved in strategic reasoning. We claim that the analysis of games should involve the study and the determination of the reasoning process that lead the players to a specific outcome, i.e. to a specific solution. A game should not be understood, like in standard game theory, as a mathematical representation of an individual choice at the equilibrium. This requires investigating the players’ capacity of coordination. We assert that understanding the process of coordination allows understanding strategic reasoning and ultimately to provide new answers to the indeterminacy problem of game theory which is one of the stalemates that game theory faces and which underscores its positive and normative difficulties. The thesi...
Notre thèse propose de changer l’ontologie et la méthodologie de la théorie des jeux, en définiss... more Notre thèse propose de changer l’ontologie et la méthodologie de la théorie des jeux, en définissant les jeux comme la compréhension du processus de raisonnement stratégique des joueurs. Notre contribution est basée sur une approche interdisciplinaire pour une réévaluation du type d'intersubjectivité impliquée dans le raisonnement stratégique.Nous affirmons que l'analyse des jeux doit impliquer l'étude et la détermination du processus de raisonnement qui conduit les joueurs à une solution spécifique. Un jeu ne doit pas être compris, comme dans la théorie des jeux standard, comme une représentation mathématique d'un choix individuel à l'équilibre. Cela nécessite d’enquêter sur la capacité de coordination des acteurs. Nous affirmons que la compréhension du processus de coordination permet de comprendre le raisonnement stratégique des joueurs. Cela permet d'apporter de nouvelles réponses au problème d'indétermination de la théorie des jeux qui constitue l...
This article defends a methodological and theoretical claim according to which the combination of... more This article defends a methodological and theoretical claim according to which the combination of epistemic game theory with the recent developments in the so-called “theory of mind” is able to provide an empirically grounded and theoretically consistent perspective on the mechanisms through which institutions determine the individuals’ beliefs and choices. This move toward an empirical social ontology is captured through what we call the Schelling-Bacharach principle in game theory. According to it, game-theoretic analysis of coordination and cooperation should study how the players are actually reasoning in different game situations.
In this contribution we relate the respective works of two important economists, Friedrich von Ha... more In this contribution we relate the respective works of two important economists, Friedrich von Hayek and Michael Bacharach, namely one of the main intellectual leaders of the Austrian Schools and one of the most original game theorists. Hayek and Bacharach are two authors - few in number – who do not conceive that economic analysis could be built without the help of psychology. They both considered that subjective perceptions of the real world provide the first stage of decision processes and that, within this stage, psychological factors played a fundamental role. Therefore, they both proposed how perceptions, economic rationality and social coordination could be combined. However economists who really accept to take psychology into account often face new difficulties. The incorporation of subjectivity in economic behaviour can make much more complex the analysis of economic and social coordination. To overtake these new difficulties we will see that both Hayek and Bacharach integr...
The paper purports to stress how the two major contributions of Bacharach: "Variable Frame T... more The paper purports to stress how the two major contributions of Bacharach: "Variable Frame Theory" (VFT) and "Team Reasoning" (TR) improve Standard Non-Cooperative Game Theory in some relevant aspects which I point out. The aims are to show: (i) how Bacharach respectively justifies coordination and cooperation within these theories, and (ii) how these improvements in both VFT and TR involve a new conception of players and their rationality. I underline how coordination and cooperation rely on contextual and social determinants, which challenge and even contradict some pillars of standard individual rationality in terms of subjective expected utility, in games. Even if Bacharach's conceptual and methodological choices within these theories induce numerous difficulties, I try to show that Bacharach’s work underlines some of the implications and related problems induced by the mere foundations of standard non-cooperation game theory.
The paper focuses on Arrow statistical discrimination theories and Schelling’s models of segregat... more The paper focuses on Arrow statistical discrimination theories and Schelling’s models of segregation, and how their work can be considered as an illustration of “the introduction of the same policy tools [as war game theory] into domestic politics in Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society Program” (Amadae, 2003: 10). In both contributions, abstract and formal theory serves as “a public policy tool” (Amadae, 2003: 9). We underline how (i) certain methods employed within RAND Corp. during the Cold War like its “interdisciplinary approach” or its “system analysis” are applied in Arrow and Schelling’s work on discrimination, and (ii) how certain tools which became the core of neoclassical economics are at the same time pervasive and challenged in Arrow and Schelling’s respective work. In that sense, our analysis is slightly different from Amadae’s one (2003) who sees in their work the illustration of the domination of rational choice theory in neoclassical economics. In our opinion, the two ...
The aim of this paper is to offer a theory of coordination that considers the role of the context... more The aim of this paper is to offer a theory of coordination that considers the role of the context within which the individuals interact, and to develop a rigorous analysis of salience and focal points. This requires dealing with how agents choose in ‘large worlds’ (in Savage’s sense). We highlight the role of mindshaping in the formation of individual preferences and beliefs and show how social focal points can generate prior beliefs. We conclude by discussing normative implications of our analysis, since it suggests that agents are socially-embedded entities, whose preferences and beliefs are shaped by social dynamics and norms.
The Individual and the Other in Economic Thought, Jul 27, 2018
The present paper offers a methodological contribution on Schelling's insight into game theory dr... more The present paper offers a methodological contribution on Schelling's insight into game theory drawing both on his proposition for a "reorientation of game theory" and his dynamic models of residential segregation. It aims to show how these respective works exhibit coherence in Schelling's thinking. It is often claimed that Schelling criticizes standard game theory without proposing any conceptual solution. To the contrary, I assert that the methodological constraints Schelling identifies in standard game theory support the proposition of a new type of modeling in the dynamic models of residential segregation: the first agent based modeling. I argue that the agent-based models provide a theoretic ground to formalize the methodological innovations proposed in his "reorientation of game theory." To understand such a claim I stress the social ontology underlined in Schelling's conception of a "theory of interdependent decisions."
The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 2017
Edmund Phelps developed a similar model published the same year in the American Economic Review (... more Edmund Phelps developed a similar model published the same year in the American Economic Review (Phelps 1972b), based on "an exact statistical model", first exposed in Inflation policy and unemployment theory (Phelps 1972a, pp. 24-7).
Journal of Economic Methodology, 2017
Mindreading and endogenous beliefs in games Abstract (100 words): we argue that a Bayesian explan... more Mindreading and endogenous beliefs in games Abstract (100 words): we argue that a Bayesian explanation of strategic choices in games requires introducing a psychological theory of belief formation. We highlight that beliefs in epistemic game theory are derived from the actual choice of the players, and cannot therefore explain why Bayesian rational players should play the strategy they actually chose. We introduce the players' capacity of mindreading in a game theoretical framework with the simulation theory, and characterise the beliefs that Bayes rational players could endogenously form in games. We show in particular that those beliefs need not be ratifiable, and therefore that rational players can form action-dependent beliefs.
OEconomia, 2016
In this contribution we relate the respective works of two important economists, Friedrich von Ha... more In this contribution we relate the respective works of two important economists, Friedrich von Hayek and Michael Bacharach, namely one of the main intellectual leaders of the Austrian Schools and one of the most original game theorists. Hayek and Bacharach are two authors—few in number—who do not conceive that economic analysis could be built without the help of psychology. They both considered that subjective perceptions of the real world provide the first stage of decision processes and that, within this stage, psychological factors played a fundamental role. Therefore, they both proposed how perceptions, economic rationality and social coordination could be combined. However economists who really accept to take psychology into account often face new difficulties. The incorporation of subjectivity in economic behaviour can make much more complex the analysis of economic and social coordination. To overtake these new difficulties we will see that both Hayek and Bacharach integrate a specific approach to human cognition and resort to an evolutionary explanation of social coordination. This is the main message we deliver in this contribution.
The purpose of this contribution is to illustrate how both Schelling and Bacharach’s methodologie... more The purpose of this contribution is to illustrate how both Schelling and Bacharach’s methodologies can help scholars bring a new approach to behavioral game theory in which the nature of usual standard methodological individualism is insufficiently questioned. I aim to show that both Schelling and Bacharach question the nature of interactive rationality. They provide original insight concerning (i) the conditions of possibility of the existence of determinate solutions and (ii) the resolution process of games. Furthermore, their questioning of the methodological implications of the well-known trio of standard game theory (common knowledge, the transparency of reasons and the reduction of "strategic uncertainty" to "physical uncertainty") offers some ideas on how to build an alternative theory of games. As forerunners, they open an ongoing research program which can still be a fruitful source of methodological innovation regarding interactive rationality and its c...
The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought , 2017
Journal of Economic Methodology, 2017
We argue that a Bayesian explanation of strategic choices in games requires introducing a psychol... more We argue that a Bayesian explanation of strategic choices in games requires introducing a psychological theory of belief formation. We highlight that beliefs in epistemic game theory are derived from the actual choice of the players, and cannot therefore explain why Bayesian rational players should play the strategy they actually chose. We introduce the players’ capacity of mindreading in a game theoretical framework with the simulation theory, and characterise the beliefs that Bayes rational players could endogenously form in games. We show in particular that those beliefs need not be ratifiable, and therefore that rational players can form action-dependent beliefs.
Springer Studies in the History of Economic Thought
Our thesis proposes to change the ontology and methodology of game theory, appraising games as th... more Our thesis proposes to change the ontology and methodology of game theory, appraising games as the understanding of the players’ strategic reasoning process. Our contribution is based on an interdisciplinary approach for a reassessment of the kind of intersubjectivity involved in strategic reasoning. We claim that the analysis of games should involve the study and the determination of the reasoning process that lead the players to a specific outcome, i.e. to a specific solution. A game should not be understood, like in standard game theory, as a mathematical representation of an individual choice at the equilibrium. This requires investigating the players’ capacity of coordination. We assert that understanding the process of coordination allows understanding strategic reasoning and ultimately to provide new answers to the indeterminacy problem of game theory which is one of the stalemates that game theory faces and which underscores its positive and normative difficulties. The thesi...
Notre thèse propose de changer l’ontologie et la méthodologie de la théorie des jeux, en définiss... more Notre thèse propose de changer l’ontologie et la méthodologie de la théorie des jeux, en définissant les jeux comme la compréhension du processus de raisonnement stratégique des joueurs. Notre contribution est basée sur une approche interdisciplinaire pour une réévaluation du type d'intersubjectivité impliquée dans le raisonnement stratégique.Nous affirmons que l'analyse des jeux doit impliquer l'étude et la détermination du processus de raisonnement qui conduit les joueurs à une solution spécifique. Un jeu ne doit pas être compris, comme dans la théorie des jeux standard, comme une représentation mathématique d'un choix individuel à l'équilibre. Cela nécessite d’enquêter sur la capacité de coordination des acteurs. Nous affirmons que la compréhension du processus de coordination permet de comprendre le raisonnement stratégique des joueurs. Cela permet d'apporter de nouvelles réponses au problème d'indétermination de la théorie des jeux qui constitue l...
This article defends a methodological and theoretical claim according to which the combination of... more This article defends a methodological and theoretical claim according to which the combination of epistemic game theory with the recent developments in the so-called “theory of mind” is able to provide an empirically grounded and theoretically consistent perspective on the mechanisms through which institutions determine the individuals’ beliefs and choices. This move toward an empirical social ontology is captured through what we call the Schelling-Bacharach principle in game theory. According to it, game-theoretic analysis of coordination and cooperation should study how the players are actually reasoning in different game situations.
In this contribution we relate the respective works of two important economists, Friedrich von Ha... more In this contribution we relate the respective works of two important economists, Friedrich von Hayek and Michael Bacharach, namely one of the main intellectual leaders of the Austrian Schools and one of the most original game theorists. Hayek and Bacharach are two authors - few in number – who do not conceive that economic analysis could be built without the help of psychology. They both considered that subjective perceptions of the real world provide the first stage of decision processes and that, within this stage, psychological factors played a fundamental role. Therefore, they both proposed how perceptions, economic rationality and social coordination could be combined. However economists who really accept to take psychology into account often face new difficulties. The incorporation of subjectivity in economic behaviour can make much more complex the analysis of economic and social coordination. To overtake these new difficulties we will see that both Hayek and Bacharach integr...
The paper purports to stress how the two major contributions of Bacharach: "Variable Frame T... more The paper purports to stress how the two major contributions of Bacharach: "Variable Frame Theory" (VFT) and "Team Reasoning" (TR) improve Standard Non-Cooperative Game Theory in some relevant aspects which I point out. The aims are to show: (i) how Bacharach respectively justifies coordination and cooperation within these theories, and (ii) how these improvements in both VFT and TR involve a new conception of players and their rationality. I underline how coordination and cooperation rely on contextual and social determinants, which challenge and even contradict some pillars of standard individual rationality in terms of subjective expected utility, in games. Even if Bacharach's conceptual and methodological choices within these theories induce numerous difficulties, I try to show that Bacharach’s work underlines some of the implications and related problems induced by the mere foundations of standard non-cooperation game theory.
The paper focuses on Arrow statistical discrimination theories and Schelling’s models of segregat... more The paper focuses on Arrow statistical discrimination theories and Schelling’s models of segregation, and how their work can be considered as an illustration of “the introduction of the same policy tools [as war game theory] into domestic politics in Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society Program” (Amadae, 2003: 10). In both contributions, abstract and formal theory serves as “a public policy tool” (Amadae, 2003: 9). We underline how (i) certain methods employed within RAND Corp. during the Cold War like its “interdisciplinary approach” or its “system analysis” are applied in Arrow and Schelling’s work on discrimination, and (ii) how certain tools which became the core of neoclassical economics are at the same time pervasive and challenged in Arrow and Schelling’s respective work. In that sense, our analysis is slightly different from Amadae’s one (2003) who sees in their work the illustration of the domination of rational choice theory in neoclassical economics. In our opinion, the two ...
The aim of this paper is to offer a theory of coordination that considers the role of the context... more The aim of this paper is to offer a theory of coordination that considers the role of the context within which the individuals interact, and to develop a rigorous analysis of salience and focal points. This requires dealing with how agents choose in ‘large worlds’ (in Savage’s sense). We highlight the role of mindshaping in the formation of individual preferences and beliefs and show how social focal points can generate prior beliefs. We conclude by discussing normative implications of our analysis, since it suggests that agents are socially-embedded entities, whose preferences and beliefs are shaped by social dynamics and norms.
The Individual and the Other in Economic Thought, Jul 27, 2018
The present paper offers a methodological contribution on Schelling's insight into game theory dr... more The present paper offers a methodological contribution on Schelling's insight into game theory drawing both on his proposition for a "reorientation of game theory" and his dynamic models of residential segregation. It aims to show how these respective works exhibit coherence in Schelling's thinking. It is often claimed that Schelling criticizes standard game theory without proposing any conceptual solution. To the contrary, I assert that the methodological constraints Schelling identifies in standard game theory support the proposition of a new type of modeling in the dynamic models of residential segregation: the first agent based modeling. I argue that the agent-based models provide a theoretic ground to formalize the methodological innovations proposed in his "reorientation of game theory." To understand such a claim I stress the social ontology underlined in Schelling's conception of a "theory of interdependent decisions."
The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 2017
Edmund Phelps developed a similar model published the same year in the American Economic Review (... more Edmund Phelps developed a similar model published the same year in the American Economic Review (Phelps 1972b), based on "an exact statistical model", first exposed in Inflation policy and unemployment theory (Phelps 1972a, pp. 24-7).
Journal of Economic Methodology, 2017
Mindreading and endogenous beliefs in games Abstract (100 words): we argue that a Bayesian explan... more Mindreading and endogenous beliefs in games Abstract (100 words): we argue that a Bayesian explanation of strategic choices in games requires introducing a psychological theory of belief formation. We highlight that beliefs in epistemic game theory are derived from the actual choice of the players, and cannot therefore explain why Bayesian rational players should play the strategy they actually chose. We introduce the players' capacity of mindreading in a game theoretical framework with the simulation theory, and characterise the beliefs that Bayes rational players could endogenously form in games. We show in particular that those beliefs need not be ratifiable, and therefore that rational players can form action-dependent beliefs.
OEconomia, 2016
In this contribution we relate the respective works of two important economists, Friedrich von Ha... more In this contribution we relate the respective works of two important economists, Friedrich von Hayek and Michael Bacharach, namely one of the main intellectual leaders of the Austrian Schools and one of the most original game theorists. Hayek and Bacharach are two authors—few in number—who do not conceive that economic analysis could be built without the help of psychology. They both considered that subjective perceptions of the real world provide the first stage of decision processes and that, within this stage, psychological factors played a fundamental role. Therefore, they both proposed how perceptions, economic rationality and social coordination could be combined. However economists who really accept to take psychology into account often face new difficulties. The incorporation of subjectivity in economic behaviour can make much more complex the analysis of economic and social coordination. To overtake these new difficulties we will see that both Hayek and Bacharach integrate a specific approach to human cognition and resort to an evolutionary explanation of social coordination. This is the main message we deliver in this contribution.
The purpose of this contribution is to illustrate how both Schelling and Bacharach’s methodologie... more The purpose of this contribution is to illustrate how both Schelling and Bacharach’s methodologies can help scholars bring a new approach to behavioral game theory in which the nature of usual standard methodological individualism is insufficiently questioned. I aim to show that both Schelling and Bacharach question the nature of interactive rationality. They provide original insight concerning (i) the conditions of possibility of the existence of determinate solutions and (ii) the resolution process of games. Furthermore, their questioning of the methodological implications of the well-known trio of standard game theory (common knowledge, the transparency of reasons and the reduction of "strategic uncertainty" to "physical uncertainty") offers some ideas on how to build an alternative theory of games. As forerunners, they open an ongoing research program which can still be a fruitful source of methodological innovation regarding interactive rationality and its c...
The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought , 2017
Journal of Economic Methodology, 2017
We argue that a Bayesian explanation of strategic choices in games requires introducing a psychol... more We argue that a Bayesian explanation of strategic choices in games requires introducing a psychological theory of belief formation. We highlight that beliefs in epistemic game theory are derived from the actual choice of the players, and cannot therefore explain why Bayesian rational players should play the strategy they actually chose. We introduce the players’ capacity of mindreading in a game theoretical framework with the simulation theory, and characterise the beliefs that Bayes rational players could endogenously form in games. We show in particular that those beliefs need not be ratifiable, and therefore that rational players can form action-dependent beliefs.