We consider an incomplete information network game in which agents are only aware of the identity of their immediate neighbors. They form beliefs about the links of their neighbors (the rest of the network) and play a linear-quadratic effort game to maximize interim payoffs. We establish the existence and uniqueness of Bayesian-Nash equilibria in pure strategies. In equilibrium, agents use local knowledge of their direct connections to make inferences about the complementarity strength of their actions with other agents given by their updated beliefs regarding their walks in the network. Using this and an example we show that under incomplete information, besides network architecture, agent identity plays a crucial role in determining strategic behavior. We also characterize equilibrium behavior under different forms of ex-ante prior beliefs like uniform priors, Erdos-Renyi network generation, and homophilic linkage. Not surprisingly, uniform priors provide similar results similar to degree-based models of incomplete information.

Deciding between apples and oranges has been an age-old question not just for hungry shoppers but within the field of decision-making research. However, very rarely have researchers considered the possibility to reject either and move on to the next shelf. I have previously argued that such a sequential decision making framework is not just essential for understanding foraging animals, but also ecological, real life, behaviour in humans^1,2. While it is intuitive that real life decision strategies require temporally extended coherent behaviours² and rely on prospection, maintained motivation and sequential adaptation, those cognitive and neural processes remain poorly understand. In the first part of my talk I will present our recent cognitive model for sequential search decisions and its underlying neural dynamics³. In the second part I will further expand into another important element of sustained and sequential behaviours, i.e. intrinsic motivation. In particular, I will focus on the circuits fluctuating with motivation to continue pursuing the current task instead of disengaging, showing task general as well as causal evidence. Lastly, I will talk about ongoing work on sequential incremental goal pursuit and how the nature of decision-making changes with goal progress neurally and behaviourally as participants assess whether to give into temptation or frustration.

Sacha Kramer (Univ Lyon 1, GATE LSE, LBBE), Dominique Pontier (HDR LBBE), Thibaud Porphyre (HDR LBBE), Julie Rosaz(HDR BSB-CEREN), Benoît Tarroux (HDR Gate-LSE)

Exploring Changes in Farmers’ Economic Behaviors during Epizootics: An Experimental Study

Abstract : This research is aiming to investigate the economic behaviors of livestock farmers during health crises, particularly focusing on epizootics (i.e. animal epidemics). Motivated by the increasing interest in multidisciplinary studies merging economics and epidemiology (epieco), our study contributes to this field by conducting a financial double auction market (DA) experiment. The experiment simulates the dynamics of a contagious risk representing the spread of a disease among livestock traded by farmers. Our design consists of two parts of ten periods each, with the first part without any disease and the second part introducing a contagious disease risk associated with asset ownership.
During each period, participants can engage in buying and selling livestock, which yield random dividends at the end of the period for their owners. The introduction of a contagious risk in the second part decreases the average dividends for infected livestock, who also possess a probability of infecting other animals within the participant portfolio. Through this investigation, we aim to explore participants decision-making strategies in response to the risk of disease transmission. We analyze variations in prices and trading volumes following the introduction of the disease, highlighting the intricate relationship between economic interests and the potential spread of disease among assets. Our goal is to provide valuable insights into the intersection of economics and epidemiology and also gather data for epidemiological models and policymakers. Additionally, we seek to understand how infectious diseases emerging in markets alter farmers’ behaviors and impact the market, thereby enhancing our understanding of the economic implications of epizootics.

Luisa Lorè (Uni of Innsbruck)