
Business Economics and Public Policy Papers
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of this Version
5-13-2013
Volume
3
Issue
3
Start Page
53
Last Page
75
DOI
10.3390/admsci3030053
Abstract
The dynamic choice between individual and social learning is explored for a population of autonomous agents whose objective is to find solutions to a stream of related problems. The probability that an agent is in the individual learning mode, as opposed to the social learning mode, evolves over time through reinforcement learning. Furthermore, the communication network of an agent is also endogenous. Our main finding is that when agents are sufficiently effective at social learning, structure emerges in the form of specialization. Some agents focus on coming up with new ideas while the remainder of the population focuses on imitating worthwhile ideas.
Keywords
individual learning, social learning, organizational learning
Recommended Citation
Chang, M., & Harrington, J. E. (2013). Individual Learning and Social Learning: Endogenous Division of Cognitive Labor in a Population of Co-evolving Problem-Solvers. 3 (3), 53-75. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/admsci3030053
Included in
Business Commons, Economics Commons, Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons
Date Posted: 27 November 2017