Polarization, Political Instability and Active Learning*
在多期决策中，决策者通过实验了解决策后果。本文区分了决策是否影响选举结果两种情况，发现政治不稳定会扭曲学习，而政党极化不一定减少主动学习。
Abstract In a multiperiod setting, decision‐makers can learn about the consequences of their decisions through experimentation. We examine how polarization and political instability affect learning through experimentation. We distinguish two cases: (i) the decision to be made is not salient and does not affect the outcome of subsequent elections (exogenous elections) and (ii) the decision is salient and the election outcome depends on it (endogenous elections). It is shown that while the possibility of learning increases activism, the existence of political instability distorts learning. Furthermore, we demonstrate that, when elections are exogenous, polarization between political parties does not always decrease active learning.