Abstract
An additive-across-states decomposition of lexicographic linear utility is easily obtained under a mild structural assumption concerning sufficient richness of acts in the domain of preference assessment, but the vectorial nature of lexicographic utility introduces two complexities absent in the real-valued case. First, the concept of state nullity becomes lexicographic rather than binary; and second, a standard construction for obtaining subjective probabilities from real-valued, state-dependent utilities produces matrices instead of nonnegative real numbers in the lexicographic setting.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allais, Maurice. (1953). Le Comportement de l'Homme Rationnel devant le Risque: Critique des Postulats et Axiomes de l'Ecole Americaine”,Econometrica 21, 503–546.
Anscombe, Frank J. and Robert J. Aumann. (1963). “A Definition of Subjective Probability”,Annals of Mathematical Statistics 34, 199–205.
Chew, Soo Hong. (1983). “A Generalization of the Quasilinear Mean with Applications to the Measurement of Income Inequality and Decision Theory Resolving the Allais Paradox”,Econometrica 51, 1065–1092.
Chew, Soo Hong and Kenneth, R. MacCrimmon. (1979). “Alpha-Nu Choice Theory: A Generalization of Expected Utility Theory”, Working Paper 669, Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
Chipman, John S. (1960). “The Foundations of Utility”,Econometrica 28, 198–224.
Chipman, John S. (1971). “Non-Archimedean Behavior Under Risk: An Elementary Analysis—with Applications to the Theory of Assets”. In John S. Chipman, Leonid Hurwicz, Marcel K. Richter, and Hugo F. Sonnenschein (eds.),Preferences, Utility and Demand. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Ellsberg, Daniel. (1961). “Risk, Ambiguity, and the Savage Axioms”,Quarterly Journal of Economics 75, 643–669.
Fishburn, Peter C. (1970).Utility Theory for Decision Making. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Fishburn, Peter C. (1971). “A Study of Lexicographic Expected Utility”,Management Science 17, 672–678.
Fishburn, Peter C. (1979). “On the Nature of Expected Utility”. In Maurice Allais and Ole Hagen (eds.),Expected Utility Hypotheses and the Allais Paradox. Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Co.
Fishburn, Peter C. (1982a). “Nontransitive Measurable Utility”,Journal of Mathematical Psychology 26, 31–67.
Fishburn, Peter C. (1982b).The Foundations of Expected Utility. Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Co.
Fishburn, Peter C. (1988).Nonlinear Preference and Utility Theory. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Fishburn, Peter C. (1989). “Generalizations of Expected Utility Theories: A Survey of Recent Proposals”. In Peter C. Fishburn and Irving H. LaValle (eds.),Choice Under Uncertainty: Annals of Operations Research 19. Basel: J.C. Baltzer A.G.
Fishburn, Peter C. and Irving H. LaValle. (1987). “State-Dependent SSB Utility”,Economics Letters 25, 21–25.
Hausner, Melvin W. (1954). “Multidimensional Utilities”. In Robert M. Thrall, Clyde H. Coombs, and Robert L. Davis (eds.),Decision Processes. New York, John Wiley & Sons.
Karni, Edi. (1985).Decision Making Under Uncertainty: The Case of State-Dependent Preferences. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Karni, Edi, David Schmeidler, and Karl Vind. (1983). “On State Dependent Preferences and Subjective Probabilities”,Econometrica 51, 1021–1032.
LaValle, Irving H. (1989). “Commentary on Analytical Issues in Decision Methodology”. In Ira Horowitz (ed.)Organization and Decision Theory. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
LaValle, Irving H. (1991). “Small Worlds and Sure Things: Consequentialism by the Back Door”. In Ward Edwards (ed.),Utility: Theories, Measurements and Applications. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
LaValle, Irving H. and Peter C. Fishburn. (1989). “Transitivity in the Small and in the Large for States-Additive SSB Utilities”. In Peter C. Fishburn and Irving H. LaValle (eds.),Choice Under Uncertainty: Annals of Operations Research 19. Basel: J.C. Baltzer A.G.
LaValle, Irving H. and Peter C. Fishburn. (1990). “Linear Lexicographic State-Dependent Utility”, duplicated, A.B. Freeman School of Business, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118.
LaValle, Irving H. and Kenneth R. Wapman. (1986). “Rolling Back Decision Trees Requires the Independence Axiom!”Management Science 32, 382–385.
Lichtenstein, Sarah and Paul Slovic. (1971). “Reversals of Preferences Between Bids and Choices in Gambling Decisions”,Journal of Experimental Psychology 89, 46–55.
Luce, R. Duncan and Peter C. Fishburn. (1991). “Rank-and Sign-Dependent Linear Utility Models for Finite First-Order Gambles”,Journal of Risk and Uncertainty 4, 29–59.
Machina, Mark J. (1987). “Choice Under Uncertainty: Problems Solved and Unsolved”,Journal of Economic Perspectives 1, 121–154.
Savage, Leonard J. (1954).The Foundations of Statistics. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Schervish, Mark J., Teddy Seidenfeld, and Joseph B. Kadane. (1990). “State Dependent Utilities”,Journal of the American Statistical Association 85, 840–847.
Schlee, Edward. (1990). “The Value of Information in Anticipated Utility Theory”,Journal of Risk and Uncertainty 3, 83–92.
Schmeidler, David. (1989). “Subjective Probability and Expected Utility Without Additivity”,Econometrica 57, 571–587.
Segal, Uzi. (1990). “Two-Stage Lotteries Without the Reduction Axiom”,Econometrica 58, 349–377.
von Neumann, John and Oskar Morgenstern. (1944).Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Wakker, Peter P. (1988). “Nonexpected Utility as Aversion of Information”,Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 1, 169–175.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lavalle, I.H., Fishburn, P.C. Lexicographic state-dependent subjective expected utility. J Risk Uncertainty 4, 251–269 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00114156
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00114156