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Nontransitive Preferences and Stochastic Rationalizability: A Behavioral Equivalence

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  • Mogens Fosgerau
  • John Rehbeck

Abstract

Nontransitive choices have long been an area of curiosity within economics. However, determining whether nontransitive choices represent an individual's preference is a difficult task since choice data is inherently stochastic. This paper shows that behavior from nontransitive preferences under a monotonicity assumption is equivalent to a transitive stochastic choice model. In particular, nontransitive preferences are regularly interpreted as a strength of preference, so we assume alternatives are chosen proportionally to the nontransitive preference. One implication of this result is that one cannot distinguish ``complementarity in attention" and ``complementarity in demand."

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  • Mogens Fosgerau & John Rehbeck, 2023. "Nontransitive Preferences and Stochastic Rationalizability: A Behavioral Equivalence," Papers 2304.14631, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2304.14631
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Maes, Sebastiaan & Malhotra, Raghav, 2024. "Beyond the Mean : Testing Consumer Rationality through Higher Moments of Demand," CRETA Online Discussion Paper Series 85, Centre for Research in Economic Theory and its Applications CRETA.
    2. Wilfried Youmbi, 2024. "Nonparametric Analysis of Random Utility Models Robust to Nontransitive Preferences," Papers 2406.13969, arXiv.org.

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