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A Million Answers to Twenty Questions: Choosing by Checklist

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Author Info
Mandler, Michael () (Royal Holloway, University of London)
Manzini, Paola () (University of London)
Mariotti, Marco () (Queen Mary, University of London)

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Abstract

Many decision models in marketing science and psychology assume that a consumer chooses by proceeding sequentially through a checklist of desirable properties. These models are contrasted to the utility maximization model of rationality in economics. We show on the contrary that the two approaches are nearly equivalent. Moreover, the length of the shortest checklist as a proportion of the number of an agent’s indifference classes shrinks to 0 (at an exponential rate) as the number of indifference classes increases. Checklists therefore provide a rapid procedural basis for utility maximization.

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Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 3377.

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Date of creation: Feb 2008
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Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3377

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Related research
Keywords: utility maximization procedural rationality bounded rationality choice behavior

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D01 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Microeconomic Behavior: Underlying Principles

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Rubinstein, Ariel, 1996. "Why Are Certain Properties of Binary Relations Relatively More Common in Natural Language?," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(2), pages 343-55, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Paola Manzini & Marco Mariotti, 2007. "Sequentially Rationalizable Choice," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(5), pages 1824-1839, December.
  3. Rubinstein, Ariel & Salant, Yuval, 2006. "A model of choice from lists," Theoretical Economics, Society for Economic Theory, vol. 1(1), pages 3-17, March. [Downloadable!]
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This page was last updated on 2008-7-14.


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