The Satisficer's Curse

Abstract

Following the Winner’s Curse and the Optimizer’s Curse, this paper introduces the Satisficer’s Curse. The Winner’s Curse requires competition between agents in an auction for, usually, a common-value item; the Optimizer’s Curse is a systematic overvaluation when the decision maker is choosing the highest-valued prospect of a set of uncertain future outcomes. The Satisficer’s Curse is a systematic overvaluation that occurs when any uncertain prospect is chosen because its estimate exceeds a positive threshold. It is the most general version of the three curses, all of which can be seen as statistical artefacts.

Keywords: decision analysis, investment, probability, ex-post disappointment, winner's curse

JEL Classification: D81, C44, G11