This paper offers an accessible introductory survey of the application of abstract choice theory to consumer theory. In the process, the paper identifires---somewhat more carefully than is usual in the literature--- the relatively small role of the rationality postulates and the relatively large...

We find that survey evidence on faculty pay-cycle choice strongly contradicts the neoclassical theory of consumer behavior. It is more favorable to the behavioral life-cycle theory of Shefrin and Thaler (1988).