Boundedly rational demand

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Kocourek, Pavel; Steiner, Jakub; Stewart, Colin
• 署名单位: University of Duisburg Essen; University of Zurich; Charles University Prague; Czech Academy of Sciences; Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences; University of Toronto
• 刊物名称: THEORETICAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1933-6837
• DOI: 10.3982/TE5796
• 发表日期: 2024-11-01
• 页码: 1415-1442
• 关键词: Behavioral welfare; bounded rationality; consumer theory; information design; revealed preference; D11; D6; D9

摘要

Evidence suggests that consumers do not perfectly optimize, contrary to a critical assumption of classical consumer theory. We propose a model in which consumer types can vary in both their preferences and their choice behavior. Given data on demand and the distribution of prices, we identify the set of possible values of the consumer surplus based on minimal rationality conditions: every type of consumer must be no worse off than if they either always bought the good or never did. We develop a procedure to narrow the set of surplus values using richer data sets and provide bounds on counterfactual demands.