Just-noticeable difference as a behavioural foundation of the critical cost-efficiency index

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Dziewulski, Pawel
• 署名单位: University of Sussex
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0531
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jet.2020.105071
• 发表日期: 2020
• 关键词: Utility maximisation; Generalised axiom of revealed preference; Critical cost-efficiency index; Interval order; Just-noticeable difference

摘要

Despite its ad hoc nature and lack of an appealing economic interpretation, the critical cost-efficiency index (or CCEI) proposed in Afriat (1973) is one of the most widespread measures of departures from rationality. In this paper, we provide a behavioural foundation for this index by showing that it is equivalent to a notion of the just-noticeable difference - a measure of dissimilarity between alternatives that is sufficient for the agent to tell them apart. (C) 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.