Choice deferral, indecisiveness and preference for flexibility

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Pejsachowicz, Leonardo; Toussaert, Severine
• 署名单位: Princeton University; University of London; London School Economics & Political Science
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0531
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jet.2017.05.001
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 417-425
• 关键词: Incomplete preferences; preference for flexibility; choice deferral

摘要

In a standard model of menu choice, we examine the behavior of an agent who applies the following Cautious Deferral rule: Whenever in doubt, don't commit; just leave options open. Our primitive is a complete preference relation that represents the agent's choice behavior. The agent's indecisiveness is captured by means of a possibly incomplete (but otherwise rational) preference relation >=. We ask when can be viewed as a Cautious Deferral completion of some incomplete Under the independence and continuity assumptions commonly used in the menu choice literature, we find that even the smallest amount of indecisiveness is enough to force >=, through the above deferral rule, to exhibit preference for flexibility on its entire domain. Thus we highlight a fundamental tension between non-monotonic preferences, such as preferences for self-control, and tendency to defer choice due to indecisiveness. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.