Individually-rational collective choice

There is a collection of exogenously given socially-feasible sets, and, for each one of them, each individual in a group chooses from an individually-feasible set. The fact that the product of the individually-feasible sets is larger than the socially-feasible set notwithstanding, there arises no conflict between individual choices. Assuming that individual preferences are random, I characterize rationalizable collective choices

Capabilities and Equality of Health II: Capabilities as Options

The concept of capabilities, introduced originally by Sen, has inspired many researchers but has not found any simple formal representation which might be instrumental in the construction of a comprehensive theory of equality. In a previous paper (Keiding, 2005), we investigated whether preferences over capabilities as sets of functionings can be rationalized by maximization of a suitable utility function over the set of functionings. Such a rationalization turned out to be possible only in cases which must be considered exceptional and which do not allowfor interesting applications of the capability approach to questions of health or equality. In the present paper we extend the notion of rationalizing orderings of capabilities to a dynamical context, in the sense that the utility function is not yet revealed to the individual at the time when the capabilities are ordered. It turns out that orderings which are in accordance with such probabilistic utility assignments can be characterized by a smaller set of the axioms previously considered.Capabilities; characteristics; equality of health

Choice, internal consistency, and rationality

The classical theory of rational choice is built on several important internal consistency conditions. In recent years, the reasonableness of those internal consistency conditions has been questioned and criticized, and several responses to accommodate such criticisms have been proposed in the literature. This paper develops a general framework to accommodate the issues raised by the criticisms of classical rational choice theory, and examines the broad impact of these criticisms from both normative and positive points of view.

Stochastic homothetically revealed preference for tight stochastic demand functions

This paper strengthens the framework of stochastic revealed preferences introduced by Bandyopadhyay et al. (1999, 2004) for stochastic homothetically revealed preferences for tight stochastic demand functions.Homotheticity, Stochastic Revealed Preference

Individually-rational collective choice

In this paper I consider the following problem: there is a collection of exogenously given socially feasible sets, and for each one of them, each one of a group of individuals chooses from an individually feasible set. The fact that the product of the individually feasible sets is larger than the socially feasible set notwithstanding, there arises no conflict between individuals. Assuming that individual preferences are random, I here characterize collective choices in terms of the way in which individual preferences must co-vary in order to explain them. I do this by combining standard revealed preference theory and its counterpart under random preferences. I also argue that there exist collective choices that cannot be rationalized, and hence that the individual rationality assumption can be refuted

Individually Rational Colective Choice Under Random Preferences

In this paper I consider the following problem: There is a collection of, exogenously given, socially feasible sets, and for each one of them, each one of a group of individuals chooses from an individually feasible set. The fact that the product of the individually feasible sets is larger than the socially feasible set notwithstanding, there arises no conflict between individuals. Assuming that individual preferences are random, I here characterize collective choices in terms of the way in wich individual preferences must co-vary in orden to explain them. I do this by combining standard revealed preference theory and its counterpart under random preferences.I also argue that there exist collective choices that cannon be rationalized, and hence that the individual rationality assumption can be refuted.Revealed preference, random utility; collective choice; individual rationality.