The random utility model (RUM, McFadden and Richter (1990)) has been the standard tool to describe the behavior of a population of decision makers. RUM assumes that decision makers behave as if they maximize a rational preference over a choice set. This assumption may fail when consideration of...

Rank dependent probability weighting---an integral part of cumulative prospect theory---has come to dominate the behavioral modeling of risk preferences in non-strategic settings over the last 40 years. We draw attention to some serious limitations of rank dependence when it comes to...

Utility theory is a pivotal concept in economics that provides insights into how an individual is motivated to act under budget constraints. The main assumption of this theory and the entire field of economics is that a rational human being and an individual derive utility from the consumption...

Survey experiments are an important tool to measure policy preferences. Researchers often rely on the random assignment of policy attribute levels to estimate different types of average marginal effects. Yet, researchers are often interested in how respondents trade-off different policy...

We present a novel characterization of random rank-dependent expected utility for finite datasets and finite prizes. As a byproduct, we obtain a characterization of random expected utility that works for finite datasets. The test lends itself to statistical testing. We apply our test to an...

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) seems an appealing option to meet the ambitious objectives of the Paris Agreement. Captured CO 2 emissions can also be injected in active fields to enhance recovery: Carbon capture and utilization (CCU). We study a dynamic model of CCS and CCU of an economy...

Building on the Herstein-Milnor mixture set axiomatization of expected utility theory, we employ multiple mixture operators each modeling a source of uncertainty to arrive at a definition of rich mixture sets. This enables a weakening of the reduction of compound lottery axiom leading to an...

We generalize the stochastic revealed preference methodology of McFadden and Richter (1990) for finite choice sets to settings with limited consideration. Our approach is nonparametric and requires partial choice set variation. We impose a monotonicity condition on attention first proposed by...

Utility tokens are digital currencies that serve as the only accepted means of payment for services and products provided through a blockchain-based platform. They finance the development of their product or service, reward and incentivize early adopters and network promoters, align economic...

This paper studies the Random Utility Model (RUM) in a repeated stochastic choice situation, in which the decision maker is imperfectly informed about the payoffs associated to each of the available alternatives. By embedding the RUM into an online decision problem, we develop a gradient-based...

This note provides a nonparametric test for dynamic discrete random utility models (DDRUM). The methodology can be used to understand the welfare implications of price changes in demand data when there is no uncertainty for consumers that have preferences over product characteristics or discrete...

We characterize optimal consumption policies in a recursive intertemporal utility framework with local substitution. We establish existence and uniqueness and a version of the Kuhn-Tucker theorem characterizing the optimal consumption plan. An explicit solution is provided for the case when the...

This paper investigates the optimal design of incentives when agents distort probabilities. We show that the type of probability distortion displayed by the agent and its degree determine whether an incentivecompatible contract can be implemented, the strength of the incentives included in the...

This note shows that the Generalized Expected Discounted Utility (GEDU) model is not dynamically consistent and does not allow for a complete separation of the parameters characterizing risk aversion and the elasticity of intertemporal substitution (EIS). Therefore, the model is not convenient...

In this paper, we apply stochastic maximum principles to derive representations for exponential utility indifference prices. We also obtain the related optimal portfolio processes and utility indifference hedging strategies. To illustrate our theoretical results, we present several concrete...

We address how recursive utility affects important results in the theory of economics of uncertainty and time, as compared to the standard model, where the focus is on dynamic models in discrete time. Several puzzles associated with the standard theory are less puzzling with recursive utility,...

Despite the truthful dominant strategy, participants in strategy-proof mechanisms submit manipulated preferences. In our model, participants dislike rejections and enjoy the confirmation from getting what they declared most desirable. Formally, the payoff from a match decreases in its position...

This article studies the implications for the theory of deterrence of (a) the manner in" which individuals' disutility from imprisonment varies with the length of the imprisonment" term; and (b) discounting of the future disutility and future public costs of imprisonment. Two" questions are...

This paper highlights a previously-unnoticed property of commonly-used discrete choice models, which is that they feature parallel demand curves. Specifically, we show that in random utility models, inverse aggregate demand curves shift in parallel with respect to variety if and only if the...

Utility theory suggests that foreseeable risk should increase the compensation for work. This paper expands on this notion: on basis of utility theory, people should care not only about risk but also about the skewness in the distribution of the compensation paid. In particular, because the...

We propose that outcome utility and process utility can be distinguished and empirically measured. People gain procedural utility from participating in the political decision-making process itself, irrespective of the outcome. Nationals enjoy both outcome and process utility, while foreigners...

We introduce range utility theory for decisions under risk. Two functions are implicated in the representation of preferences: a traditional utility function for wealth---or changes in wealth---and a range distortion function. The latter introduces a local deformation of the utility function on...

This paper compares the dynamics of two general equilibrium models of endogenous growth in which agents have comparison utility.' In the inward-looking' economy, individuals care about how their consumption in the current period compares to their own consumption in the past (one way to describe...

Using a macro quantile factor model, we examine cross-state (i.e., cross-quantile) heterogeneity in consumption behaviors. We find that common macro factors generate a “big bang/crunch” effect on micro consumption. Generally speaking, when the aggregate effect of the common factors on the...

In this paper we compare the new satisfaction evaluation approach, developed in the nineties by Oswald, Clark, Blanchflower and others with the older income evaluation (IEQ) approach, developed by Van Praag and Kapteyn in the seventies of the previous century. We find that both approaches yield...

Almost stochastic dominance is a relaxation of stochastic dominance, which allows small violations of stochastic dominance rules to avoid situations where most decision makers prefer one alternative to another but stochastic dominance cannot rank them. The authors first discuss the relations...

This book presents recent advances in the theory and application of the Best-Worst Method (BWM). It includes selected papers from the Third International Workshop on Best-Worst Method (BWM2022), held in Delft, the Netherlands, from 9 to 10 June 2022. The book provides valuable insights on why...

This article develops a utility-based explanation for the existence of an asymmetric tax treatment of gains and losses when investors are loss averse. The authors find that loss offset rules should be more restrictive for investors which are (1) more risk averse in case of gains, (2) less risk...

[enter Abstract Body]Utility theory is a pivotal concept in economics which provides insights into how an individual is motivated to act under their budget constraint. The main assumption of this theory and the entire economics is a rational human being and an individual derives utility from the...

We embed the problem of public school choice design in a model of local provision of education. We define cardinal (student) segregation as that emerging when families with identical ordinal preferences submit different rankings of schools in a centralised school choice procedure. With the...

We embed the problem of public school choice design in a model of local provision of education. We define cardinal (student) segregation as that emerging when families with identical ordinal preferences submit different rankings of schools in a centralised school choice procedure. With the...

Let X be a connected metric space, let N be the set of natural numbers, and let be a preference order defined on a suitable subset of X^N. I characterize when has a Cesàro average utility representation. This means that there is a continuous function u from X into the real numbers, such that...

Historically, rational choice theory has focused on the utility maximization principle to describe how individuals make choices. In reality, there is a computational cost related to exploring the universe of available choices and it is often not clear whether we are truly maximizing an...