IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/qld/uq2004/507.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Why do I keep going in circles? On the impossibility of constructing rational preferences

Author

Abstract

In standard models of rational choice it is typically taken for granted that preferences are given and defined over the alternatives alone, and the possibility of making a rational choice is simply a matter of assumption. In this paper I generalise this aspect of the economic model so that preferences over alternatives are constructed from given preferences defined over various characteristics of the alternatives under consideration. I characterise the decision problem before investigating what conditions a procedure for aggregating preferences over attributes into preferences over alternatives must satisfy in order for the latter to be rational. I then consider what the implications of these conditions for the procedural rationality of the aggregation process.

Suggested Citation

  • Brendan Markey-Towler, 2014. "Why do I keep going in circles? On the impossibility of constructing rational preferences," Discussion Papers Series 507, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    • Handle: RePEc:qld:uq2004:507
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://economics.uq.edu.au/files/45920/507.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:qld:uq2004:507. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: SOE IT (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/decuqau.html .

    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.