IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2008.04401.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Connected Incomplete Preferences

Author

Listed:
  • Leandro Gorno
  • Alessandro Rivello

Abstract

The standard model of choice in economics is the maximization of a complete and transitive preference relation over a fixed set of alternatives. While completeness of preferences is usually regarded as a strong assumption, weakening it requires care to ensure that the resulting model still has enough structure to yield interesting results. This paper takes a step in this direction by studying the class of "connected preferences", that is, preferences that may fail to be complete but have connected maximal domains of comparability. We offer four new results. Theorem 1 identifies a basic necessary condition for a continuous preference to be connected in the sense above, while Theorem 2 provides sufficient conditions. Building on the latter, Theorem 3 characterizes the maximal domains of comparability. Finally, Theorem 4 presents conditions that ensure that maximal domains are arc-connected.

Suggested Citation

  • Leandro Gorno & Alessandro Rivello, 2020. "Connected Incomplete Preferences," Papers 2008.04401, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2008.04401
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2008.04401
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Amartya Sen, 1969. "Quasi-Transitivity, Rational Choice and Collective Decisions," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 36(3), pages 381-393.
    2. Juan Dubra & Fabio Maccheroni & Efe A. Ok, 2004. "Expected Utility Without the Completeness Axiom," Yale School of Management Working Papers ysm404, Yale School of Management.
    3. Gul, Faruk, 1991. "A Theory of Disappointment Aversion," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(3), pages 667-686, May.
    4. Dubra, Juan & Maccheroni, Fabio & Ok, Efe A., 2004. "Expected utility theory without the completeness axiom," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 118-133, March.
    5. Efe A. Ok, 2007. "Preliminaries of Real Analysis, from Real Analysis with Economic Applications," Introductory Chapters, in: Real Analysis with Economic Applications, Princeton University Press.
    6. Schmeidler, David, 1971. "A Condition for the Completeness of Partial Preference Relations," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 39(2), pages 403-404, March.
    7. Leandro Gorno, 2018. "The structure of incomplete preferences," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 66(1), pages 159-185, July.
    8. Dekel, Eddie, 1986. "An axiomatic characterization of preferences under uncertainty: Weakening the independence axiom," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 304-318, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gorno, Leandro & Rivello, Alessandro T., 2023. "A maximum theorem for incomplete preferences," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. M. Ali Khan & Metin Uyanık, 2021. "Topological connectedness and behavioral assumptions on preferences: a two-way relationship," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 71(2), pages 411-460, March.
    2. Simone Cerreia‐Vioglio & David Dillenberger & Pietro Ortoleva, 2015. "Cautious Expected Utility and the Certainty Effect," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 83, pages 693-728, March.
    3. McCarthy, David & Mikkola, Kalle & Thomas, Teruji, 2021. "Expected utility theory on mixture spaces without the completeness axiom," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    4. Gorno, Leandro & Rivello, Alessandro T., 2023. "A maximum theorem for incomplete preferences," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    5. McCarthy, David & Mikkola, Kalle, 2018. "Continuity and completeness of strongly independent preorders," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 141-145.
    6. Uyanik, Metin & Khan, M. Ali, 2022. "The continuity postulate in economic theory: A deconstruction and an integration," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    7. Tigran Melkonyan & Zvi Safra, 2016. "Intrinsic Variability in Group and Individual Decision Making," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(9), pages 2651-2667, September.
    8. Daniel R. Burghart, 2020. "The two faces of independence: betweenness and homotheticity," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 88(4), pages 567-593, May.
    9. McCarthy, David & Mikkola, Kalle & Thomas, Teruji, 2017. "Representation of strongly independent preorders by sets of scalar-valued functions," MPRA Paper 79284, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Galaabaatar, Tsogbadral & Khan, M. Ali & Uyanık, Metin, 2019. "Completeness and transitivity of preferences on mixture sets," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 49-62.
    11. David McCarthy & Kalle Mikkola & Teruji Thomas, 2019. "Aggregation for potentially infinite populations without continuity or completeness," Papers 1911.00872, arXiv.org.
    12. Chew, Soo Hong & Miao, Bin & Shen, Qiang & Zhong, Songfa, 2022. "Multiple-switching behavior in choice-list elicitation of risk preference," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    13. Karni, Edi & Zhou, Nan, 2021. "Weighted utility theory with incomplete preferences," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 116-135.
    14. Dubra, Juan, 2011. "Continuity and completeness under risk," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 80-81, January.
    15. Susumu Cato, 2013. "Quasi-decisiveness, quasi-ultrafilter, and social quasi-orderings," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 41(1), pages 169-202, June.
    16. Karni, Edi & Vierø, Marie-Louise, 2023. "Comparative incompleteness: Measurement, behavioral manifestations and elicitation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 423-442.
    17. Leandro Nascimento, 2011. "Remarks on the consumer problem under incomplete preferences," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 70(1), pages 95-110, January.
    18. Hill, Brian, 2016. "Incomplete preferences and confidence," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 83-103.
    19. Walter Bossert & Kotaro Suzumura, 2015. "Expected utility without full transitivity," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 45(4), pages 707-722, December.
    20. Simone Cerreia-Vioglio & Efe A. Ok, 2018. "The Rational Core of Preference Relations," Working Papers 632, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2008.04401. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.