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Here is a contextual example from Landry et. al. 2006 :

We concentrate on an economy with n symmetric agents who derive utility from consuming a numeraire good, yi, a public good at level G, and (possibly) from their own contribution bi to the public good. Each agent faces a budget constraint yi bi w and derives ex post utility according to

(1) $ Ui = u(yi) + \Theta h(G) + \gamma f(bi)$

dismalscience
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orson
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1 Answers1

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“Symmetric agents” generally means that all the agents have the same payoff function and the same information set. In this case, it’s the function you’ve specified. It’s often the case that, because symmetric agents will all respond the same way, they can be replaced with a single representative agent, in contrast to heterogenous agent models.

dismalscience
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