Convergence in a sequential two stage decision making process

© 2016 Iranian Mathematical Society. We analyze a sequential decision making process, in which at each step the decision is made in two stages. In the first stage a partially optimal action is chosen, which allows the decision maker to learn how to improve it under the new environment. We show how inertia (cost of changing) may lead the process to converge to a routine where no further changes are made. We illustrate our scheme with some economic models.