Revealed Preference in a Discrete Consumption Space

Matthew Polisson, John K.-H. Quah

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    14 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    We show that an agent maximizing some utility function on a discrete (as opposed to continuous) consumption space will obey the generalized axiom of revealed preference (GARP), so long as the agent obeys cost efficiency. Cost efficiency will hold if there is some good, outside the set of goods being studied by the modeler, that can be consumed by the agent in continuous quantities. An application of Afriat's Theorem then guarantees that there is a strictly increasing utility function on the discrete consumption space that rationalizes price and demand observations.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)28-34
    JournalAmerican Economic Journal: Microeconomics
    Volume5
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2013

    Keywords

    • generalized axiom of revealed preference
    • Afriat’s Theorem
    • discrete demand
    • utility maximization

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