Review of Economic Studies Vol. 55 No. 2 1988
Revealed Preference Theory, Ordering and the Axiom of Sequential Path Independence
Abstract
This paper is concerned with the axiomatic foundation of the theory of choice. Describing a choice procedure which one often observes in real life, the author shows that the requirement of path independence of such a procedure is a necessary and sufficient condition for transitive or full rationalization of a choice function. It is shown that the result holds when rationality is identified with different interpretations of the binary relations of preference revealed by a choice function. It is also shown that a weaker version of our path independence condition is both necessary and sufficient for a rational choice.
- DOI
- 10.2307/2297585
- Volume
- 55
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 343
- Sources
- openalex bibtex:phds-export.bib crossref