Learning, Estimation, and the Stability of Rational Expectations

The stability of the rational expectations equilibrium of a simple asset market model is studied in a situation where a group of traders learn about the relationship between the price and return on the asset using ordinary least squares estimation, and then use their estimates in predicting the return from the price. The model which they estimate is a well-specified model of the rational expectations equilibrium, but a misspecified model of the situation in which the traders are learning. It is shown that for appropriate values of a stability parameter the situation converges almost surely to the rational expectations equilibrium, Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: 022, 026. 1