IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jeborg/v103y2014icp125-144.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Myopic separability

Author

Listed:
  • Kannai, Yakar
  • Selden, Larry
  • Wei, Xiao

Abstract

In the classic certainty multiperiod, multigood demand problem, suppose preferences for current and past period consumption are separable from consumption in future periods. Then optimal demands can be determined from the standard two stage budgeting process, where optimal current period demands depend only on current and past prices and current period expenditure. Unfortunately this simplification does not significantly reduce the informational requirements for the decision maker since in general the expenditure is a function of future prices. Recent behavioral evidence strongly suggests that frequently individuals significantly simplify intertemporal choice problems. We derive necessary and sufficient conditions such that the current period's expenditure and hence optimal current demands are independent of future prices. Since this preference property is a special case of separability, it is referred to as myopic separability. One well known special case of myopic separability is log additive (or equivalently Cobb–Douglas) utility. However, this form of utility is overly restrictive, especially given the general aversion of Fisher (1930), Hicks (1965) and Lucas (1978) to requiring preferences to be additively separable. Myopic separability requires neither additive separability nor logarithmic period utility. As an application, we derive simple restrictions on equilibrium interest rates which are necessary and sufficient for utility to take the myopic separable form. These conditions are arguably less restrictive than those implied by additively separable preferences.

Suggested Citation

  • Kannai, Yakar & Selden, Larry & Wei, Xiao, 2014. "Myopic separability," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 125-144.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:103:y:2014:i:c:p:125-144
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2014.04.009
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268114001140
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jebo.2014.04.009?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. R. A. Pollak, 1968. "Consistent Planning," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 35(2), pages 201-208.
    2. Drazen Prelec & George Loewenstein, 1991. "Decision Making Over Time and Under Uncertainty: A Common Approach," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 37(7), pages 770-786, July.
    3. Brown, Donald J & Lewis, Lucinda M, 1981. "Myopic Economic Agents," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(2), pages 359-368, March.
    4. Cherchye, L.J.H. & Crawford, I. & de Rock, B. & Vermeulen, F.M.P., 2011. "Aggregation without the Aggravation? Nonparametric Analysis of the Representative Consumer," Other publications TiSEM e6102eac-a248-49dc-ae8e-1, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    5. Mark Rubinstein., 1974. "A Discrete-Time Synthesis of Financial Theory, Part I. Optimal Decision and Sharing Rules," Research Program in Finance Working Papers 20, University of California at Berkeley.
    6. Hakansson, Nils H, 1971. "On Optimal Myopic Portfolio Policies, With and Without Serial Correlation of Yields," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 44(3), pages 324-334, July.
    7. Matthew Rabin & Georg Weizsacker, 2009. "Narrow Bracketing and Dominated Choices," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(4), pages 1508-1543, September.
    8. Bryant, John, 1983. "Government Irrelevance Results: A Simple Exposition," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(4), pages 758-761, September.
    9. Deaton,Angus & Muellbauer,John, 1980. "Economics and Consumer Behavior," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521296762.
    10. Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky, 2013. "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & William T Ziemba (ed.), HANDBOOK OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING Part I, chapter 6, pages 99-127, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    11. Chipman, John S., 1974. "Homothetic preferences and aggregation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 26-38, May.
    12. Barnett,William A. & Cornet,Bernard & D'Aspremont,Claude & Gabszewicz,Jean & Mas-Colell,Andreu (ed.), 1991. "Equilibrium Theory and Applications," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521392198.
    13. Read, Daniel & Loewenstein, George & Rabin, Matthew, 1999. "Choice Bracketing," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 19(1-3), pages 171-197, December.
    14. R. Robert Russell, 1975. "Functional Separability and Partial Elasticities of Substitution," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 42(1), pages 79-85.
    15. Felix Kubler & Larry Selden & Xiao Wei, 2014. "Asset Demand Based Tests of Expected Utility Maximization," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(11), pages 3459-3480, November.
    16. Mas-Colell, Andreu & Whinston, Michael D. & Green, Jerry R., 1995. "Microeconomic Theory," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195102680.
    17. Wallace, Neil, 1981. "A Modigliani-Miller Theorem for Open-Market Operations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(3), pages 267-274, June.
    18. Narayana R. Kocherlakota, 2001. "Looking for evidence of time-inconsistent preferences in asset market data," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, vol. 25(Sum), pages 13-24.
    19. Lucas, Robert E, Jr, 1978. "Asset Prices in an Exchange Economy," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(6), pages 1429-1445, November.
    20. MOSSIN, Jan, 1968. "Optimal multiperiod portfolio policies," LIDAM Reprints CORE 19, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    21. Pollak, Robert A, 1970. "Habit Formation and Dynamic Demand Functions," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 78(4), pages 745-763, Part I Ju.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Soldatos, Gerasimos T., 2015. "Law, Coercion, And Socioeconomic Equilibrium," MPRA Paper 68953, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    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. Dorian Jullien, 2018. "Under Risk, Over Time, Regarding Other People: Language and Rationality within Three Dimensions," Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology, in: Including a Symposium on Latin American Monetary Thought: Two Centuries in Search of Originality, volume 36, pages 119-155, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    2. Yakar Kannai & Larry Selden, 2014. "Violation of the Law of Demand," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 55(1), pages 1-28, January.
    3. Manel Baucells & Rakesh K. Sarin, 2019. "The Myopic Property in Decision Models," Decision Analysis, INFORMS, vol. 16(2), pages 128-141, June.
    4. Dorian Jullien, 2016. "Under Uncertainty, Over Time and Regarding Other People: Rationality in 3D," GREDEG Working Papers 2016-20, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    5. Chavas, Jean-Paul, 2013. "On Demand Analysis and Dynamics: A Benefit Function Approach," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 149683, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. Alexander Ludwig & Alexander Zimper, 2013. "A decision-theoretic model of asset-price underreaction and overreaction to dividend news," Annals of Finance, Springer, vol. 9(4), pages 625-665, November.
    7. repec:ubc:pmicro:halevy-04-10-29-10-08-43 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Barberis, Nicholas & Huang, Ming, 2009. "Preferences with frames: A new utility specification that allows for the framing of risks," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 33(8), pages 1555-1576, August.
    9. Hopfensitz, Astrid, 2009. "Previous outcomes and reference dependence: A meta study of repeated investment tasks with and without restricted feedback," MPRA Paper 16096, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Jonathan W. Leland & Mark Schneider, 2016. "Salience, Framing, and Decisions under Risk, Uncertainty, and Time," Working Papers 16-08, Chapman University, Economic Science Institute.
    11. Thomas Dohmen & Armin Falk & David Huffman & Uwe Sunde, 2010. "Are Risk Aversion and Impatience Related to Cognitive Ability?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(3), pages 1238-1260, June.
    12. Hsiaw, Alice, 2018. "Goal bracketing and self-control," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 100-121.
    13. Simon Gächter & Eric J. Johnson & Andreas Herrmann, 2022. "Individual-level loss aversion in riskless and risky choices," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 92(3), pages 599-624, April.
    14. Hammond, Peter J & Zank, Horst, 2013. "Rationality and Dynamic Consistency under Risk and Uncertainty," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1033, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    15. Haug, Jørgen & Hens, Thorsten & Woehrmann, Peter, 2013. "Risk aversion in the large and in the small," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 118(2), pages 310-313.
    16. Felső, Flóra Á & Soetevent, Adriaan R., 2014. "Broad and narrow bracketing in gift certificate spending," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 284-302.
    17. Haug, Jørgen & Hens, Thorsten & Wöhrmann, Peter, 2011. "Risk Aversion in the Large and in the Small," Discussion Papers 2011/12, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Business and Management Science.
    18. John Donaldson & Rajnish Mehra, 2007. "Risk Based Explanations of the Equity Premium," NBER Working Papers 13220, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Stefan Zeisberger & Thomas Langer & Martin Weber, 2012. "Why does myopia decrease the willingness to invest? Is it myopic loss aversion or myopic loss probability aversion?," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 72(1), pages 35-50, January.
    20. Koch, Alexander K. & Nafziger, Julia, 2011. "Goals and Psychological Accounting," IZA Discussion Papers 5802, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    21. Mesly, Olivier & Chkir, Imed & Racicot, François-Éric, 2019. "Predatory cells and puzzling financial crises: Are toxic products good for the financial markets?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 11-31.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Myopic demand; Separable utility; Additive separability; Myopic separability; Equilibrium interest rates;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D01 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Microeconomic Behavior: Underlying Principles
    • D11 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Theory
    • D53 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - Financial Markets

    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:eee:jeborg:v:103:y:2014:i:c:p:125-144. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jebo .

    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.