An alternative condition, called reduction invariance, is given to derive Prelec's (1998) form for the weighting function in separable utility theory. The condition, which is a variant on the reduction of compound gambles, is appreciably simpler and more empirically testable than Prelec's...

The paper considers the problem of comparing income distributions for heterogeneous populations. Following Atkinson and Bourguignon (1987), we divide the population in different groups of needs and evaluate the social welfare with a utilitarian function. By considering the Generalized...

In an exchange economy with no aggregate uncertainty, and Bayesian agents, Pareto optimal allocations provide full insurance if and only if the agents have a common prior. It is hard to explain why there is relatively so little betting taking place. One is led to ask, when are full insurance...

We show, in the Choquet expected utility model, that prefernece for diversification, that is, convex prefrences, is equivalent to a concave utility index and a convex capacity. We then introduce a weaker notion of diversification, namely "sure diversification". We show that this implies that the...

Shackle's theory of decision-making under uncertainty and the background to it are outlined. Its major prediction about action-choice is set out and proved. An experimental design to test its veracity is described; a design that it is demonstrated will make it possible to discriminate between...