IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/sereko/200267.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Rational Choice Theory And Random Behaviour

Author

Listed:
  • Krstic, Bojan
  • Krstic, Milos

Abstract

According to rational choice theory, rational consumers tend to maximize utility under a given budget constraints. This will be achieved if they choose a combination of goods that cannot satisfy their needs and provide the maximum level of utility. Gary Becker imagines irrational consumers who choose bundle on the budget line. As irrational consumers have an equal probability of choosing any bundle on the budget line, on average, we expect that they will pick the bundle lying at the midpoint of the line. The results of research in which artificial Becher’s agents choose among more than two commodities rational choice theory is small. And in more than two budget/price situations show that the percentage of agents whose behaviour violate. Adding some factors to Becker’s model of random behaviour, experimenters can minimize these minor violations and fit the actor’s choice with the theory. In addition, the results of organizations’ choices analysis show that the observed agents behave rationally, and this behaviour confirms the theory rational choice. Therefore, rational choice theory is unfalsifiable. As the theory can always fits with the facts, it would have been much more productive if we had admitted that the theory was falsifiable and then debated its explanatory value in specific circumstances.

Suggested Citation

  • Krstic, Bojan & Krstic, Milos, 2015. "Rational Choice Theory And Random Behaviour," Ekonomika, Journal for Economic Theory and Practice and Social Issues, Society of Economists Ekonomika, Nis, Serbia, vol. 61(1), pages 1-13, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:ags:sereko:200267
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.200267
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/200267/files/1.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.200267?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hirshleifer, Jack, 1985. "The Expanding Domain of Economics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(6), pages 53-68, December.
    2. Ivan Moscati & Paola Tubaro, 2011. "Becker random behavior and the as-if defense of rational choice theory in demand analysis," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(2), pages 107-128.
    3. Sidney G. Winter, 1964. "Economic "Natural Selection" and the Theory of the Firm," LEM Chapters Series, in: Yale Economic Essays, pages 225-272, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    4. Alfred S. Eichner, 1983. "Why Economics Is Not Yet a Science," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(2), pages 507-520, June.
    5. Varian, Hal R., 1988. "Revealed preference with a subset of goods," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 179-185, October.
    6. Paul A. Samuelson, 1937. "A Note on Measurement of Utility," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 4(2), pages 155-161.
    7. Hafner, Petar & Krstic, Milos, 2014. "Rational Economic Behavior- Interdisciplinary Approach," Ekonomika, Journal for Economic Theory and Practice and Social Issues, Society of Economists Ekonomika, Nis, Serbia, vol. 60(4), December.
    8. Slovic, Paul & Lichtenstein, Sarah, 1983. "Preference Reversals: A Broader Perspective," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(4), pages 596-605, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Bojan Krstic, Milos Krstic, 2015. "Rational Choice Theory And Random Behaviour," Ekonomika, Journal for Economic Theory and Practice and Social Issues 2015-01, „Ekonomika“ Society of Economists, Niš (Serbia).
    2. Irene van Staveren, 2012. "An Evolutionary Efficiency Alternative to the Notion of Pareto Efficiency," Economic Thought, World Economics Association, vol. 1(1), pages 1-6, July.
    3. Geoffrey M. Hodgson, 2013. "Dr Blaug's diagnosis: is economics sick?," Chapters, in: Marcel Boumans & Matthias Klaes (ed.), Mark Blaug: Rebel with Many Causes, chapter 8, pages 78-97, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Jeroen van den Bergh & John Gowdy, 2000. "Evolutionary Theories in Environmental and Resource Economics: Approaches and Applications," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 17(1), pages 37-57, September.
    5. Garrett, Vicki & Koontz, Tomas M., 2008. "Breaking the cycle: Producer and consumer perspectives on the non-adoption of passive solar housing in the US," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 1551-1566, April.
    6. J. Wesley Hutchinson & Gal Zauberman & Robert Meyer, 2010. "—On the Interpretation of Temporal Inflation Parameters in Stochastic Models of Judgment and Choice," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(1), pages 23-31, 01-02.
    7. Eileen Tipoe & Abi Adams & Ian Crawford, 2022. "Revealed preference analysis and bounded rationality [Consume now or later? Time inconsistency, collective choice and revealed preference]," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 74(2), pages 313-332.
    8. Jeroen C.J.M. van den Bergh & Ada Ferrer-I-Carbonell & Guiseppe Munda, 1998. "Models of Individual Behavior and Implications for Environmental Policy," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 98-121/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    9. Drouhin, Nicolas, 2015. "A rank-dependent utility model of uncertain lifetime," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 208-224.
    10. Mononen, Lasse, 2024. "Dynamically Consistent Intergenerational Welfare," Center for Mathematical Economics Working Papers 687, Center for Mathematical Economics, Bielefeld University.
    11. Min Gong & David Krantz & Elke Weber, 2014. "Why Chinese discount future financial and environmental gains but not losses more than Americans," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 49(2), pages 103-124, October.
    12. Lovric, M. & Kaymak, U. & Spronk, J., 2008. "A Conceptual Model of Investor Behavior," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2008-030-F&A, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    13. Lex Borghans & Angela Lee Duckworth & James J. Heckman & Bas ter Weel, 2008. "The Economics and Psychology of Personality Traits," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 43(4).
    14. Federica Ceron & Vassili Vergopoulos, 2020. "Recursive objective and subjective multiple priors," Post-Print halshs-02900497, HAL.
    15. Moore, Don A., 1999. "Order Effects in Preference Judgments: Evidence for Context Dependence in the Generation of Preferences, ," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 78(2), pages 146-165, May.
    16. repec:voc:wpaper:tech82012 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Bruno S. Frey & Stephan Meier, "undated". "Pro-Social Behavior, Reciprocity or Both?," IEW - Working Papers 107, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    18. Jihyo Kim & Suhyeon Nam, 2021. "Do Household Time, Risk, and Social Preferences Affect Home Energy Retrofit Decisions in Korea?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-18, April.
    19. Sylvain Béal & Eric Rémila & Philippe Solal, 2015. "Discounted Tree Solutions," Working Papers hal-01377923, HAL.
    20. Marina Bianchi, 1994. "Evolutionary metaphors and the justification of economic efficiency," Finnish Economic Papers, Finnish Economic Association, vol. 7(1), pages 17-29, Spring.
    21. Ida, Takanori & Goto, Rei & Takahashi, Yuko & Nishimura, Shuzo, 2011. "Can economic-psychological parameters predict successful smoking cessation?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 285-295, May.

    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:ags:sereko:200267. 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ekonomika.org.rs .

    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.