Ants, Rationality, and Recruitment Export

@article{kirman93, abstract = {This paper offers an explanation of behavior that puzzled entomologists and economists. Ants, faced with two identical food sources, were observed to concentrate more on one of these, but after a period they would turn their attention to the other. The same phenomenon has been observed in humans choosing between restaurants. After discussing the nature of foraging and recruitment behavior in ants, a simple model of stochastic recruitment is suggested. This explains the "herding" and "epidemics" described in the literature on financial markets as corresponding to the equilibrium distribution of a stochastic process rather than to switching between multiple equilibria.}, author = {Kirman, Alan}, citeulike-article-id = {3185969}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2118498}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://www.jstor.org/stable/2118498}, doi = {10.2307/2118498}, issn = {00335533}, journal = {The Quarterly Journal of Economics}, keywords = {abm, rationality}, number = {1}, pages = {137--156}, posted-at = {2008-09-03 14:06:39}, priority = {2}, publisher = {The MIT Press}, title = {Ants, Rationality, and Recruitment}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2118498}, volume = {108}, year = {1993} }

TY - JOUR ID - kirman93 L3 - citeulike-article-id:3185969 N2 - This paper offers an explanation of behavior that puzzled entomologists and economists. Ants, faced with two identical food sources, were observed to concentrate more on one of these, but after a period they would turn their attention to the other. The same phenomenon has been observed in humans choosing between restaurants. After discussing the nature of foraging and recruitment behavior in ants, a simple model of stochastic recruitment is suggested. This explains the "herding" and "epidemics" described in the literature on financial markets as corresponding to the equilibrium distribution of a stochastic process rather than to switching between multiple equilibria. IS - 1 JF - The Quarterly Journal of Economics SN - 00335533 EP - 156 TI - Ants, Rationality, and Recruitment PB - The MIT Press VL - 108 SP - 137 KW - abm KW - rationality AU - Kirman, Alan PY - 1993/// UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2118498 ER -