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Extent of Irrationality of the Consumer: Combining the Critical Cost Eciency and Houtman Maks Indices

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  • Matej Opatrny

    (Institute of Economic Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague, Smetanovo nabrezi 6, 111 01 Prague 1, Czech Republic)

Abstract

We combine the Critical Cost Efficiency Index and the Houtman Maks Index to evaluate the consistency of subjects in a set of choice data from budgets. We show that by simply allowing subjects for one significant mistake (by removing the worst observation), the mean Critical Cost Efficiency Index in a set of choices from an online experiment with the general population increases by 6 percentage points. Furthermore, we find that by excluding the worst observation per subject, the fraction of subjects wasting 5% or less of their budget increases from 45% to 64%. The highest improvement in terms of efficiency can be seen among retired and 65+ aged subjects which indicates that their low level of effciency is largely due to a single mistake.

Suggested Citation

  • Matej Opatrny, 2018. "Extent of Irrationality of the Consumer: Combining the Critical Cost Eciency and Houtman Maks Indices," Working Papers IES 2018/11, Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies, revised Apr 2018.
    • Handle: RePEc:fau:wpaper:wp2018_11
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    Cited by:

    1. Federico Echenique, 2021. "On the meaning of the Critical Cost Efficiency Index," Papers 2109.06354, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2022.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Critical Cost Efficiency Index; Houtman Maks Index; Socio-economic groups; observation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions

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