Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/36674 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
Jena Economic Research Papers No. 2010,035
Publisher: 
Friedrich Schiller University Jena and Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena
Abstract: 
Absentmindedness is a special case of imperfect recall which according to Piccione and Rubinstein (1997a) leads to time inconsistencies. Aumann, Hart and Perry (1997a) question their argument and show how dynamic inconsistencies can be resolved. The present paper explores this issue from a descriptive point of view by examining the behavior of absentminded individuals in a laboratory environment. Absentmindedness is manipulated in two ways. In one treatment, it is induced by cognitively overloading participants. In the other, it is imposed by randomly matching decisions with decision nodes in the information set. The results provide evidence for time inconsistencies in all treatments. We introduce a behavioral principal, which best explains the data.
Subjects: 
imperfect recall
absentmindedness
dynamic inconsistency
experiment
JEL: 
C72
C91
D03
D81
D83
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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