This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. Journal of Economic Perspectives
  4. Search Results
  5. Classroom Games: Understanding Bayes' Rule

Journal of Economic Perspectives

ISSN 0895-3309 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7965 (Online)

Classroom Games: Understanding Bayes' Rule

  • Charles A. Holt
  • Lisa R. Anderson
Journal of Economic Perspectives
vol. 10, no. 2, Spring 1996
(pp. 179–187)
Download Full Text PDF
(Complimentary)

Abstract

This paper uses the technique of experimental economics to set up a classroom situation where students learn to make Bayesian decisions. The exercises allow students to discover for themselves a natural counting heuristic that corresponds to Bayes's rule and is much quicker to use in many situations. In the context of balls and urns, this heuristic involves adjusting ball counts to reflect prior probabilities. It provides a natural bridge between simple intuition and the mathematical formula for Bayes's rule that is presented in undergraduate courses in economic statistics, game theory, and managerial economics.

Citation

Holt, Charles A., and Lisa R. Anderson. 1996. "Classroom Games: Understanding Bayes' Rule." Journal of Economic Perspectives, 10 (2): 179–187. DOI: 10.1257/jep.10.2.179

JEL Classification

  • A22 Economic Education and Teaching of Economics: Undergraduate
  • C11 Bayesian Analysis
There are no comments for this article.
Login to Comment