Center for Social Information Sciences (CSIS) Seminar

Abstract: This paper introduces a novel ranking of statistical experiments, the linear-Blackwell (LB) order, which can equivalently be characterized by (i) the dispersion of the induced posterior and likelihood ratios in the sense of the linear convex order, (ii) the size of the Lorenz zonoid (the set of statewise expectation profiles), or (iii) the variability of the posterior mean. We apply the LB order to compare experiments in decision problems with quasi-concave payoffs and in principal-agent problems with separable payoffs.