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Nonparametric Welfare and Demand Analysis with Unobserved Individual Heterogeneity

Author

Listed:
  • Sam Cosaert

    (Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research and University of Leuven)

  • Thomas Demuynck

    (Université Libre de Bruxelles)

Abstract

This paper combines revealed preference and nonparametric estimation techniques to obtain nonparametric bounds on the distribution of the money metric utility and demand functions over a population of heterogeneous households. Our approach is independent of any functional specification on the household utility functions. Our method applies the weak axiom of revealed preference to a population of heterogeneous households. Although this does not produce the sharpest bounds, we show that it is computationally attractive and provides narrow bounds. We demonstrate the usefulness of our results by applying it to the Consumer Expenditure Survey, a U.S. cross–sectional consumption data set.

Suggested Citation

  • Sam Cosaert & Thomas Demuynck, 2018. "Nonparametric Welfare and Demand Analysis with Unobserved Individual Heterogeneity," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 100(2), pages 349-361, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:restat:v:100:y:2018:i:2:p:349-361
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    Cited by:

    1. Takashi Kunimoto & Roberto Serrano, 2020. "Rationalizable Incentives: Interim Implementation of Sets in Rationalizable Strategies," Economics and Statistics Working Papers 4-2020, Singapore Management University, School of Economics.
    2. Cherchye, Laurens & Demuynck, Thomas & De Rock, Bram, 2018. "Transitivity of preferences: when does it matter?," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 13(3), September.
    3. Cherchye, Laurens & Demuynck, Thomas & De Rock, Bram, 2018. "Transitivity of preferences: when does it matter?," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 13(3), September.
    4. Charles Gauthier & Sebastiaan Maes & Raghav Malhotra, 2023. "Consumer Welfare Under Individual Heterogeneity," Papers 2303.01231, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2025.
    5. Thomas Demuynck & Tom Potoms, 2022. "Testing revealed preference models with unobserved randomness: a column generation approach," Working Papers ECARES 2022-42, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    6. Maes, Sebastiaan & Malhotra, Raghav, 2024. "Robust Hicksian Welfare Analysis under Individual Heterogeneity," CRETA Online Discussion Paper Series 84, Centre for Research in Economic Theory and its Applications CRETA.
    7. Aguiar, Victor H. & Hjertstrand, Per & Serrano, Roberto, 2020. "A Rationalization of the Weak Axiom of Revealed Preference," Working Paper Series 1321, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    8. Theloudis, Alexandros, 2021. "Consumption inequality across heterogeneous families," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    9. Donni, Olivier & Molina, José Alberto, 2018. "Household Collective Models: Three Decades of Theoretical Contributions and Empirical Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 11915, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Stefan Hoderlein & Jörg Stoye, 2015. "Testing stochastic rationality and predicting stochastic demand: the case of two goods," Economic Theory Bulletin, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 3(2), pages 313-328, October.
    11. Roy Allen & John Rehbeck, 2020. "Counterfactual and Welfare Analysis with an Approximate Model," Papers 2009.03379, arXiv.org.
    12. Cherchye, Laurens & Demuynck, Thomas & Rock, Bram De, 2019. "Bounding counterfactual demand with unobserved heterogeneity and endogenous expenditures," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 211(2), pages 483-506.
    13. Wilfried Youmbi, 2024. "Nonparametric Analysis of Random Utility Models Robust to Nontransitive Preferences," Papers 2406.13969, arXiv.org.
    14. Bart Capéau & Liebrecht De Sadeleer & Sebastiaan Maes & André Decoster, 2020. "Nonparametric welfare analysis for discrete choice: levels and differences of individual and social welfare," Working Papers of Department of Economics, Leuven 674666, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Department of Economics, Leuven.
    15. Demuynck, Thomas & Hjertstrand, Per, 2019. "Samuelson's Approach to Revealed Preference Theory: Some Recent Advances," Working Paper Series 1274, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    16. Dieter Saelens, 2022. "Unitary or collective households? A nonparametric rationality and separability test using detailed data on consumption expenditures and time use," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 62(2), pages 637-677, February.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • C14 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: General

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