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on Neuroeconomics |
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Issue of 2024‒07‒08
three papers chosen by |
| By: | Jian-Qiao Zhu; Haijiang Yan; Thomas L. Griffiths |
| Abstract: | The observed similarities in the behavior of humans and Large Language Models (LLMs) have prompted researchers to consider the potential of using LLMs as models of human cognition. However, several significant challenges must be addressed before LLMs can be legitimately regarded as cognitive models. For instance, LLMs are trained on far more data than humans typically encounter, and may have been directly trained on human data in specific cognitive tasks or aligned with human preferences. Consequently, the origins of these behavioral similarities are not well understood. In this paper, we propose a novel way to enhance the utility of LLMs as cognitive models. This approach involves (i) leveraging computationally equivalent tasks that both an LLM and a rational agent need to master for solving a cognitive problem and (ii) examining the specific task distributions required for an LLM to exhibit human-like behaviors. We apply this approach to decision-making -- specifically risky and intertemporal choice -- where the key computationally equivalent task is the arithmetic of expected value calculations. We show that an LLM pretrained on an ecologically valid arithmetic dataset, which we call Arithmetic-GPT, predicts human behavior better than many traditional cognitive models. Pretraining LLMs on ecologically valid arithmetic datasets is sufficient to produce a strong correspondence between these models and human decision-making. Our results also suggest that LLMs used as cognitive models should be carefully investigated via ablation studies of the pretraining data. |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2405.19313&r= |
| By: | Claudio Daminato; Luigi Pistaferri |
| Abstract: | A recent literature argues that persistent heterogeneity in wealth returns ("type dependence") as well as a positive association with wealth levels ("scale dependence") play an important role for explaining features of the wealth distribution, especially its extreme concentration at the top. In contrast, traditional models of wealth accumulation emphasize the role of persistent differences in labor earnings. Using panel data from the PSID, we first document that a common unobserved component (which we interpret as the endowment of cognitive and non-cognitive skills of an individual) drives persistent heterogeneity in both wealth returns and labor earnings. We embed these features of the joint wealth return-earnings process in a life-cycle model of consumer behavior and show that ignoring them would dramatically understate average returns for people at the top of the wealth distribution as well as the level and rise of consumption inequality over the life cycle. |
| JEL: | E21 G51 J24 |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32490&r= |
| By: | Flagner, Stefan (Maastricht University); Meissner, Thomas (Maastricht University); Künn, Steffen (Maastricht University); Eichholtz, Piet (Maastricht University); Kok, Nils (Maastricht University); Kramer, Rick (Eindhoven University of Technology); van Marken-Lichtenbelt, Wouter (Maastricht University); Ly, Cynthia (Maastricht University); Plasqui, Guy (Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | This study provides novel evidence on the isolated effect of carbon dioxide on cognition, economic decision-making, and the physiological response in healthy office workers. The experiment took place in an air-tight respiration chamber fully controlling the environmental conditions. In a single-blind, within-subject study design, 20 healthy participants were exposed to carbon dioxide concentrations of 3, 000 ppm and 900 ppm in randomized order, with each exposure lasting for 8 hours. We do not find evidence on a statistically significant effect on either cognitive or physiological outcome variables. Thus, the evidence shows that the human body appears to be able to deal with exposure to indoor carbon dioxide concentration of 3, 000 ppm without suffering significant cognitive decline, changes in decision-making or showing any physiological response. |
| Keywords: | carbon dioxide, indoor air quality, cognition, economic decision-making, physiological response |
| JEL: | D87 J24 Q54 |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17019&r= |