Updating toward the signal

Abstract

Modelers frequently assume (either implicitly or explicitly) that an agent's posterior expectation of some variable lies between their prior mean and the realization of an unbiased signal of that variable. We call this property updating toward the signal (UTS). We show that if the prior and signal error densities are both symmetric and quasiconcave then UTS will occur. If, for a given prior, UTS occurs for all symmetric and quasiconcave error densities, then in fact the prior must be symmetric and quasiconcave. Similar characterizations are derived for two additional updating requirements that are strictly weaker than UTS. © 2010 The Author(s).