(2004) Apesteguía Garcés, José; Ballester Oyarzun, Miguel Ángel; Economía; Ekonomia
There is extensive field and experimental evidence in a wide variety of environments showing that behavior depends on a reference point. This paper provides an axiomatic characterization for such behavior. Our approach is dual, we study choice behavior and preference relations. We proceed by gradually imposing more structure on behavior, requiring higher levels of rationality, that free the decision-maker from certain types of manipulations. Depending on the phenomena one wants to model, one degree of behavioral structure will be appropriate or another. We provide two applications of the theory: one to model the status-quo bias, and another to model addictive behavior.
(2005) Apesteguía Garcés, José; Ballester Oyarzun, Miguel Ángel; Economía; Ekonomia
Kalai, Rubinstein, and Spiegler (2002) propose the rationalization of choice functions that violate the “independence of irrelevant alternatives” axiom through a collection (book) of linear orders (rationales). In this paper we present an algorithm which, for any choice function, gives (i) the minimal number of rationales that rationalizes the choice function, (ii) the composition of such rationales, and (iii) information on how choice problems are related to rationales. As in the classical case, this renders the information given by a choice function completely equivalent to that given by a minimal book of rationales. We also study the structure of several choice procedures that are prominent in the literature.
