Afriat's theorem for general budget sets

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Forges, Francoise; Minelli, Enrico
• 署名单位: University of Brescia; Universite PSL; Universite Paris-Dauphine
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0531
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jet.2008.03.002
• 发表日期: 2009
• 页码: 135-145
• 关键词: GARP; rational choice; revealed preferences; SARP; WARP

摘要

Afriat proved the equivalence of a variant of the strong axiom of revealed preference and the existence of a solution to a set of linear inequalities. From this solution he constructed a utility function rationalizing the choices of a competitive consumer. We extend Afriat's theorem to a class of nonlinear, nonconvex budget sets. We thereby obtain testable implications of rational behavior for a wide class of economic environments, and a constructive method to derive individual preferences from observed choices. We also show that by increasing in a regular way the number of observed choices from our class of budget sets one can fully identify the underlying preference relation. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All fights reserved.