James Bullard, Speech: Social Learning for the Masses, Simon Frasier University

An Academic Speech – No Economic Information was Covered.

“This suggests that in reality, the U.S. economy—despite its complexity—does not seem to follow the types of slow adjustment paths emphasized in some of the earlier literature.”

“I will suggest that the rapid convergence observed in the U.S. data could occur if there is substantial communication across the society—social learning as implemented by JA.”

“In the economy I describe, this can occur because there are many millions of agents that have already learned and retained the “DNA” of optimal decision rules for consumption, assets and hours worked before the shock occurred.”

“Other agents that may not know these decision rules can learn relatively quickly from

those that do.”

I call this phenomenon “social learning for the masses.”