On the Consistency of Choice
Journal
Theory and decision : an international journal for multidisciplinary advances in decision science
ISSN
0040-5833
ISSN-Digital
1573-7187
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2017-12
Author(s)
Abstract
Consistency of choice is a fundamental and recurring theme in decision theory, social choice theory, behavioral economics, and psychological sciences. The purpose of this paper is to study consistency of choice independent of the particular decision model at hand. Consistency is viewed as an inherently logical concept that is fundamentally void of connotation and is thus disentangled from traditional rationality or consistency conditions imposed on decision models. The proposed formalization of consistency takes two forms: internal consistency, which refers to the property that a choice model does not generate contradictory statements; and semantic consistency, which refers to the idea that a theory's predictions are valid with respect to some observed data. In addressing semantic consistency, the relationship between theory and data is analyzed in terms of so-called duality mappings, which allow a passage between the two universes in a way that consistency is preserved. The formalization of consistency concepts relies on adapting revealed preference theory to the context-dependent setting. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of the proposed framework and how it relates to classical revealed preference theory and other formalizations of the relationship between the theory and reality of choice.
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
HSG Profile Area
SEPS - Quantitative Economic Methods
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
Springer Science + Business Media B.V.
Publisher place
Dordrecht [u.a.]
Volume
83
Number
4
Start page
547
End page
572
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
252021
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Name
consistency.pdf
Size
311.32 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
6483b3f91985dbdb027d14063af337c6