Revealing Preferences Graphically:

An Old Method Gets a New Toolkit

Gatsby image

DateMay 3rd, 2007

Author

Shachar Kariv, PhD.

Read time 20 minutes

Because uncertainty is endemic in a wide variety of economic circumstances, models of decision making under uncertainty play a key role in every field of economics.

However, current methodologies for understanding decision making under uncertainty are insufficient. New experimental results and theoretical advances can provide much richer guidance for understanding the preferences underlying decisions under uncertainty and the choices that implement them. Developing such methods will have far-reaching implications in many areas of economic theory and policy.

In this paper, we illustrate how this experimental design enables us to thoroughly analyze behavior under uncertainty at the individual level. The analysis builds on revealed preference techniques to determine whether the choices of hypothetical subjects are consistent with utility maximization and to recover their underlying preferences.

Revealing Preferences Graphically:

An Old Method Gets a New Toolkit

Gatsby image

About author

Shachar Kariv, PhD.

He is also the Benjamin N. Ward Professor of Economics and the recent Chair of the Economics Department at the University of California, Berkeley – recognized as one of the world’s most impactful and influential economics institutions.

Shachar is widely regarded as the top decision theorist and game theorist in the world.