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The consideration of nonstandard models of the real numbers and the definition of a qualitative ordering on those models provides a generalization of the principle of maximization of expected utility. It enables the decider to assign…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2007-05-23 Daniel Lehmann

To choose between two discrete goods, a consumer pays attention to only those with prices below a threshold. From these, she chooses her most preferred good. We assume consumers in a population have the same preference but may have…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2025-11-07 Kaushil Patel

The random utility model is known to be unidentified, but there are times when the model admits a unique representation. We offer two characterizations for the existence of a unique random utility representation. Our first characterization…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2023-02-14 Christopher Turansick

The choice of admissible trading strategies in mathematical modelling of financial markets is a delicate issue, going back to Harrison and Kreps (1979). In the context of optimal portfolio selection with expected utility preferences this…

Computational Finance · Quantitative Finance 2017-07-25 Sara Biagini , Aleš Černý

Nontransitive choices have long been an area of curiosity within economics. However, determining whether nontransitive choices represent an individual's preference is a difficult task since choice data is inherently stochastic. This paper…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2023-05-01 Mogens Fosgerau , John Rehbeck

Crawford's et al. (2021) article on estimation of discrete choice models with unobserved or latent consideration sets, presents a unified framework to address the problem in practice by using "sufficient sets", defined as a combination of…

Econometrics · Economics 2022-05-03 C. Angelo Guevara

A model for decision making that generalizes Expected Utility Maximization is presented. This model, Expected Qualitative Utility Maximization, encompasses the Maximin criterion. It relaxes both the Independence and the Continuity…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2007-05-23 Daniel Lehmann

McFadden and Richter (1991) and later McFadden (2005) show that the Axiom of Revealed Stochastic Preference characterizes rationalizability of choice probabilities through random utility models on finite universal choice spaces. This note…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2019-02-21 Jörg Stoye

This paper builds a rule for decisionmaking from the physical behavior of single neurons, the well established neural circuitry of mutual inhibition, and the evolutionary principle of natural selection. No axioms are used in the derivation…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2023-02-21 Valdes Salvador , Gonzalo ValdesEdwards

Expected Utility: Algebraic Expected Utility In this paper, we provide two axiomatizations of algebraic expected utility, which is a particular generalized expected utility, in a von Neumann-Morgenstern setting, i.e. uncertainty…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2012-07-02 Paul Weng

Counterfactual utilities evaluate decisions not only by the realized outcome under a given decision, but also by the counterfactual outcomes that would arise under alternative decisions. By generalizing standard utility frameworks, they…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2026-05-08 Benedikt Koch , Kosuke Imai , Tomasz Strzalecki

Models of stochastic choice typically use conditional choice probabilities given menus as the primitive for analysis, but in the field these are often hard to observe. Moreover, studying preferences over menus is not possible with this…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2022-08-19 Yaron Azrieli , John Rehbeck

The ability to uncover preferences from choices is fundamental for both positive economics and welfare analysis. Overwhelming evidence shows that choice is stochastic, which has given rise to random utility models as the dominant paradigm…

General Economics · Economics 2018-11-07 Carlos Alos-Ferrer , Ernst Fehr , Nick Netzer

Based on the observation that many existing discrete choice models admit a welfare function of utilities whose gradient gives the choice probability vector, we propose a new representation of discrete choice model which we call the…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2015-03-09 Guiyun Feng , Xiaobo Li , Zizhuo Wang

We study preferences estimated from finite choice experiments and provide sufficient conditions for convergence to a unique underlying "true" preference. Our conditions are weak, and therefore valid in a wide range of economic environments.…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2020-11-03 Christopher P. Chambers , Federico Echenique , Nicolas Lambert

Aggregating risks from multiple sources can be complex and demanding, and decision makers usually adopt heuristics to simplify the evaluation process. This paper axiomatizes two closed related and yet different heuristics, narrow bracketing…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2021-08-30 Mu Zhang

Estimating consumer preferences is central to many problems in economics and marketing. This paper develops a flexible framework for learning individual preferences from partial ranking information by interpreting observed rankings as…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2026-02-19 Yu-Chang Chen , Chen Chian Fuh , Shang En Tsai

The use of von Neumann -- Morgenstern utility is examined in the context of multiple choices between lotteries. Different conclusions are reached if the choices are simultaneous or sequential. It is demonstrated that utility cannot be…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2023-06-07 Nimrod Megiddo

We consider a decision maker who is unaware of objects to be sampled and thus cannot form beliefs about the occurrence of particular objects. Ex ante she can form beliefs about the occurrence of novelty and the frequencies of yet to be…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2025-02-21 Burkhard C. Schipper

This paper introduces the distributionally robust random utility model (DRO-RUM), which allows the preference shock (unobserved heterogeneity) distribution to be misspecified or unknown. We make three contributions using tools from the…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2023-03-13 David Müller , Emerson Melo , Ruben Schlotter