English

Dynamically Consistent Objective and Subjective Rationality

Theoretical Economics 2020-04-28 v1

Abstract

A group of experts, for instance climate scientists, is to choose among two policies ff and gg. Consider the following decision rule. If all experts agree that the expected utility of ff is higher than the expected utility of gg, the unanimity rule applies, and ff is chosen. Otherwise the precautionary principle is implemented and the policy yielding the highest minimal expected utility is chosen. This decision rule may lead to time inconsistencies when an intermediate period of partial resolution of uncertainty is added. We provide axioms that enlarge the initial group of experts with veto power, which leads to a set of probabilistic beliefs that is "rectangular" in a minimal sense. This makes this decision rule dynamically consistent and provides, as a byproduct, a novel behavioral characterization of rectangularity.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2004.12347,
  title  = {Dynamically Consistent Objective and Subjective Rationality},
  author = {Lorenzo Bastianello and José Heleno Faro and Ana Santos},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2004.12347},
  year   = {2020}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T15:06:11.211Z