Abstract
Common experience suggests, and experiment confirms, that a person does not always make the same choice when faced with the same options, even when the circumstances of choice seem in all relevant respects to be the same. However, the bulk of economic theory neglects the existence of such inconsistencies; and the best known theories for decision making, for example, those of von Neumann and Morgenstern [1] or Savage [2], base the existence of a measurable utility upon a pattern of invariant two-place relations, sometimes called ‘preference’ and ‘indifference’. This raises a difficulty for any attempt to use such theories to describe and predict actual behavior.
Notes
Research undertaken by the Applied Mathematics and Statistics Laboratory, Stanford University, under contract Nonr-225(17), NR 171-034, with the Office of Naval Research, and by the Cowles Commission for Research in Economics under contract Nonr-358 (01), NR 047-006, with the Office of Naval Research.
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© 1974 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland
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Davidson, D. (1974). Experimental Tests of a Stochastic Decision Theory (1959). In: Economic Information, Decision, and Prediction. Theory and Decision Library, vol 7-1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-9276-0_7
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