Filtering Down to Size: A Theory of Consideration
Abstract
The standard rational choice model describes individuals as making choices by selecting the best option from a menu. A wealth of evidence instead suggests that individuals often filter menus into smaller sets - consideration sets - from which choices are then made. I provide a theoretical foundation for this phenomenon, developing a formal language of axioms to characterize how consideration sets are formed from menus. I posit that consideration filters - mappings that translate a menu into one of its subsets - capture this process, and I introduce several properties that consideration filters can have. I then extend this core model to provide linkages with the sequential choice and rational attention literatures. Finally, I explore whether utility representation is feasible under this consideration model, conjecturing necessary and sufficient conditions for consideration-mediated choices to be rationalizable.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2301.05649,
title = {Filtering Down to Size: A Theory of Consideration},
author = {Tonna Emenuga},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2301.05649},
year = {2023}
}