Sign in

Nick Tenev

@nten.bsky.social
382 followers 1K following 28 posts

Economist (labor, finance, networks). Views here are my own. tenevn.github.io

PostsRepliesMedia
Nick Tenev @nten.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
One reason for that pressure may be trust—it's reasonable to place more trust in those who agree with you
061
Nick Tenev @nten.bsky.social · 29/06/2025
Suppose the sources I'm learning from start using echo chambers of their own, making the high-quality sources more accurate and the low-quality sources less accurate (as above). Then I'm more inclined to want to filter out the low-quality sources by using an echo chamber myself. (4/n)
040
Nick Tenev @nten.bsky.social · 29/06/2025
So echo chambers can bring those close to the truth closer, but also prevent the misinformed from learning much. We show that this can make echo chambers contagious. (3/n)
120
Nick Tenev @nten.bsky.social · 29/06/2025
Echo chambers can increase the accuracy of beliefs on average, since people are more willing to heed information they trust. However, those who start with really inaccurate beliefs may be worse off using echo chambers, since the sources they trust are also misinformed. (2/n)
100
Nick Tenev @nten.bsky.social · 29/06/2025
New version of our paper on echo chambers is posted, and it has a couple new results. The first is about inequality of beliefs (1/n) arxiv.org/abs/2010.01249
arxiv.org
Optimal Echo Chambers
When learning from others, people tend to focus their attention on those with similar views. This is often attributed to flawed reasoning, and thought to slow learning and polarize beliefs. However, w...
110
Nick Tenev @nten.bsky.social · 27/04/2025
To be fair, one reason for the disconnect in appreciation for LLMs is that coding has always been unreasonably pedantic in a way that is probably hard to appreciate until you've wrestled with it
000
Nick Tenev @nten.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
Some airlines may have bereavement fares for family, but either way condolences
020
Reposted by Nick Tenev
Ben Golub @bengolub.bsky.social · 17/01/2025
PLEASE RT :) Submit to the annual Network Science and Economics Conference, the largest US event for network theory and empirical research in and adjacent to economics Deadline Jan 30 (soon!) Conference Apr 11-13 at Stanford
48076
Nick Tenev @nten.bsky.social · 04/01/2025
The rational agent paradigm is often maligned as unrealistic, with experimental evidence of seeming irrationality cited as support. But this new work argues that people just can’t absorb or remember all the information that’s thrown at them, and have to make choices about what to focus on.
030
Nick Tenev @nten.bsky.social · 04/01/2025
Some real interesting papers in this session “Neurofinance, Cognition” today, pushing on the idea that seeming departures from rational behavior wrt risk are actually just evidence of cognitive constraints, like limits on memory or attention
aeaweb.org
American Economic Association
132
Nick Tenev @nten.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
I’m guessing the increased engagement for low quality sources is not just people quoting them to explain their shortcomings?
100
Nick Tenev @nten.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
One week left to submit your research on AI/ML use in banking and finance to the OCC’s symposium next June! Submit here by Dec. 15: www.occ.gov/news-issuanc... #econsky
occ.gov
OCC Solicits Research on Artificial Intelligence in Banking and Finance
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is soliciting academic research papers on the use of artificial intelligence in banking and finance for submission by December 15, 2024.
010
Nick Tenev @nten.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
These examples of when AI screws up easy questions because of their similarity to well known trick questions reminds me of the classic test-taking technique: they’d never ask this question if the answer were A instead of B
020
Nick Tenev @nten.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
Always relieving to learn a behavioral anomaly was just two cognitive constraints in a trench coat all along
000
Nick Tenev @nten.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
It’s a lot of work to get to the bottom of why you disagree with someone—hard to think it’s worth it, when they’re probably just misinformed, or arguing in bad faith
010
Nick Tenev @nten.bsky.social · 24/09/2024
So for example, maybe you don’t want to criticize your party’s candidate in front of undecided voters. But among friends, you’re willing to admit you have doubts about their ability to win, or don’t love all their policies.
010
Nick Tenev @nten.bsky.social · 24/09/2024
But there are other good ones, too. Echo chambers can provide people with similar beliefs or preferences a place to credibly share information they might otherwise have misrepresented in attempt to persuade others. See doi.org/10.1016/j.ge... and olejann.net/wp-content/u...
110
Nick Tenev @nten.bsky.social · 24/09/2024
That’s the tradeoff we study in this paper: arxiv.org/abs/2010.01249
arxiv.org
Optimal Echo Chambers
When learning from others, people tend to focus their attention on those with similar views. This is often attributed to flawed reasoning, and thought to slow learning and polarize beliefs....
100
Nick Tenev @nten.bsky.social · 24/09/2024
Echo chambers trade usefulness for credibility. It’s reasonable to place more trust in those who agree with you, but they don’t let you know when you’re wrong.
150
Nick Tenev @nten.bsky.social · 03/04/2024
Sure there is. Conditioning your participation on the policies of the candidate you prefer gives them an incentive (your vote) to pursue policies you like.
000
Nick Tenev @nten.bsky.social · 01/04/2024
Referee reports on papers are famously negative, but one I’m looking at now includes the phrase “In the future (if any)…” which surely deserves some kind of prize for pessimism
020
Nick Tenev @nten.bsky.social · 18/02/2024
Sure anytime
010
Nick Tenev @nten.bsky.social · 17/02/2024
(proof: if the widest parts are at different heights, then you save space by alternating. And if not, you don't use any more space.)
100
Nick Tenev @nten.bsky.social · 17/02/2024
Tiny bit of practical math: if you have more than one type of wine glass you want to store in a line, it saves space to alternate
110
Nick Tenev @nten.bsky.social · 17/02/2024
For the US, FRED is a good place to start for macro data, including survey data on consumer expectations e.g. fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MICH
fred.stlouisfed.org
University of Michigan: Inflation Expectation
University of Michigan: Inflation Expectation
020
Nick Tenev @nten.bsky.social · 06/02/2024
The existence of free will may have moral implications (is it right to lock somebody up for a crime if they couldn’t have chosen not to commit it?). But free will or not, people do tend to respond to incentives.
000
Nick Tenev @nten.bsky.social · 06/02/2024
But we know from a vast body of experimental evidence that changing incentives or constraints does change people’s behavior.
100
Nick Tenev @nten.bsky.social · 06/02/2024
Gleick: “Legal institutions, theories of government, and economic systems are built on the assumption that humans make choices and strive to influence the choices of others. Without some kind of free will, politics has no point. Nor does sports. Or anything, really.”
110
Nick Tenev @nten.bsky.social · 06/02/2024
I liked reading the recent pieces on free will (apparently still a debate!), but they seem to imply that free will is necessary to make choices, or respond to incentives. www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
nybooks.com
The Fate of Free Will | James Gleick
Nobody was holding a gun to your head when you started reading this. You made a choice. Surely it felt that way, at least. A sense of agency—of control
230