Finance and Economics Discussion Series

The Two-Period Rational Inattention Model: Accelerations and Analyses

Kurt F. Lewis
2008-22

Abstract: This paper demonstrates the properties of and a solution method for the more general two-period Rational Inattention model of Sims (2006). It is shown that the corresponding optimization problem is convex and can be solved very quickly. This paper also demonstrates a computational tool well-suited to solving Rational Inattention models and further illustrates a critique raised in Sims (2006) regarding Rational Inattention models whose solutions assume parametric formulations rather than solve for their optimally-derived, non-parametric counterparts.

Keywords: Rational inattention, information-processing constraints, numerical optimization