IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/yor/yorken/12-02.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

On Revealed Preference and Indivisibilities

Author

Listed:
  • Satoru Fujishige
  • Zaifu Yang

Abstract

We consider a market model in which all commodities are inherently indivisible and thus are traded in integer quantities. We ask whether a finite set of price-quantity observations satisfying the Generalized Axiom of Revealed Preference (GARP) is consistent with utility maximization. Although familiar conditions such as non-satiation become meaningless in the current discrete model, by refining the standard notion of demand set we show that Afriat's celebrated theorem still holds true. Exploring network structure and a new and easy-to-use variant of GARP, we propose an elementary, simple, intuitive, combinatorial, and constructive proof for the result.

Suggested Citation

  • Satoru Fujishige & Zaifu Yang, 2012. "On Revealed Preference and Indivisibilities," Discussion Papers 12/02, Department of Economics, University of York.
    • Handle: RePEc:yor:yorken:12/02
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.york.ac.uk/media/economics/documents/discussionpapers/2012/1202.pdf
    File Function: Main text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. A. Fostel & H. Scarf & M. Todd, 2004. "Two new proofs of Afriat’s theorem," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 24(1), pages 211-219, July.
    2. Herbert E. Scarf, 2008. "Neighborhood Systems for Production Sets with Indivisibilities," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Zaifu Yang (ed.), Herbert Scarf’s Contributions to Economics, Game Theory and Operations Research, chapter 5, pages 105-130, Palgrave Macmillan.
    3. Richard W. Blundell & Martin Browning & Ian A. Crawford, 2003. "Nonparametric Engel Curves and Revealed Preference," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(1), pages 205-240, January.
    4. Laurens Cherchye & Bram De Rock & Frederic Vermeulen, 2007. "The Collective Model of Household Consumption: A Nonparametric Characterization," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 75(2), pages 553-574, March.
    5. Herbert Scarf, 1994. "The Allocation of Resources in the Presence of Indivisibilities," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 8(4), pages 111-128, Fall.
    6. Kelso, Alexander S, Jr & Crawford, Vincent P, 1982. "Job Matching, Coalition Formation, and Gross Substitutes," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(6), pages 1483-1504, November.
    7. W. E. Diewert, 1973. "Afriat and Revealed Preference Theory," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 40(3), pages 419-425.
    8. Frederic Vermeulen, 2012. "Foundations of Revealed Preference: Introduction," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 122(560), pages 287-294, May.
    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. Polisson, Matthew & Renou, Ludovic, 2016. "Afriat’s Theorem and Samuelson’s ‘Eternal Darkness’," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 36-40.
    2. Forges, Françoise & Iehlé, Vincent, 2014. "Afriat’s theorem for indivisible goods," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 1-6.
    3. Smeulders, Bart & Crama, Yves & Spieksma, Frits C.R., 2019. "Revealed preference theory: An algorithmic outlook," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 272(3), pages 803-815.
    4. Kohei Shiozawa, 2015. "Note on goodness-of-fit measures for the revealed preference test: The computational complexity of the minimum cost index," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 35(4), pages 2455-2461.
    5. repec:hal:wpaper:halshs-00870052 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Kohei Shiozawa, 2015. "Revealed Preference Test and Shortest Path Problem; Graph Theoretic Structure of the Rationalizability Test," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 15-17-Rev.2, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics, revised Aug 2016.
    7. Yoram Halevy & Dotan Persitz & Lanny Zrill, 2018. "Parametric Recoverability of Preferences," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 126(4), pages 1558-1593.
    8. Shiozawa, Kohei, 2016. "Revealed preference test and shortest path problem; graph theoretic structure of the rationalizability test," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 38-48.
    9. Kohei Shiozawa, 2015. "Revealed Preference Test and Shortest Path Problem; Graph Theoretic Structure of the Rationalizability Test," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 15-17-Rev., Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics, revised Jul 2015.

    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. John Quah & Hiroki Nishimura & Efe A. Ok, 2013. "A Unified Approach to Revealed Preference Theory: The Case of Rational Choice," Economics Series Working Papers 686, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    2. Cherchye, L.J.H. & Demuynck, T. & de Rock, B., 2009. "Degrees of Cooperation in Household Consumption Models : A Revealed Preference Analysis," Discussion Paper 2009-91, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    3. Laurens Cherchye & Bram De Rock & Frederic Vermeulen, 2011. "The Revealed Preference Approach to Collective Consumption Behaviour: Testing and Sharing Rule Recovery," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 78(1), pages 176-198.
    4. Thomas Demuynck & John Rehbeck, 2023. "Computing revealed preference goodness-of-fit measures with integer programming," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 76(4), pages 1175-1195, November.
    5. Laurens Cherchye & Sam Cosaert & Thomas Demuynck & Bram De Rock, 2020. "Group Consumption with Caring Individuals," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 130(627), pages 587-622.
    6. Laurens Cherchye & Bram De Rock & Vincenzo Platino, 2013. "Private versus public consumption within groups: testing the nature of goods from aggregate data," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 54(3), pages 485-500, November.
    7. Laurens CHERCHYE & Thomas DEMUYNCK & Bram DE ROCK, 2010. "Noncooperative household consumption with caring," Working Papers of Department of Economics, Leuven ces10.34, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Department of Economics, Leuven.
    8. Laurens Cherchye & Thomas Demuynck & Bram De Rock, 2013. "Nash‐Bargained Consumption Decisions: A Revealed Preference Analysis," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 123, pages 195-235, March.
    9. József Sákovics, 2013. "Revealed cardinal preference," Economic Theory Bulletin, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 1(1), pages 39-45, May.
    10. Laurens CHERCHYE & Ian CRAWFORD & Bram DE ROCK & Frederic VERMEULEN, 2011. "Aggregation without the aggravation? Nonparametric analysis of the representative consumer," Working Papers of Department of Economics, Leuven ces11.36, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Department of Economics, Leuven.
    11. Laurens CHERCHYE & Ian CRAWFORD & Bram DE ROCK & Frederic VERMEULEN, 2013. "Gorman revisited: nonparametric conditions for exact linear aggregation," Working Papers of Department of Economics, Leuven ces13.05, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Department of Economics, Leuven.
    12. Laura Blow & Richard Blundell, 2018. "A Nonparametric Revealed Preference Approach to Measuring the Value of Environmental Quality," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 69(3), pages 503-527, March.
    13. Laurens CHERCHYE & Bram DE ROCK & Jeroen SABBE & Ewout VERRIEST, 2010. "Commitment in intertemporal household consumption: a revealed preference analysis," Working Papers of Department of Economics, Leuven ces10.33, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Department of Economics, Leuven.
    14. Sam Cosaert & Veerle Hennebel, 2023. "Parental Childcare with Process Benefits," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 90(357), pages 339-371, January.
    15. Ivar Ekeland & Alfred Galichon, 2013. "The housing problem and revealed preference theory: duality and an application," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 54(3), pages 425-441, November.
    16. van der Laan, G. & Talman, A.J.J. & Yang, Z.F., 1999. "Existence and Welfare Properties of Equilibrium in an Exchange Economy with Multiple Divisible, Indivisible Commodities and Linear Production Technologies," Other publications TiSEM e7e05539-3fab-4998-818d-0, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    17. Koshevoy, Gleb A. & Talman, Dolf, 2006. "Competitive equilibria in economies with multiple indivisible and multiple divisible commodities," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 216-226, April.
    18. Santiago Sanchez-Pages, 2012. "(Don't) Make My Vote Count," Edinburgh School of Economics Discussion Paper Series 213, Edinburgh School of Economics, University of Edinburgh.
    19. Laurens Cherchye & Thomas Demuynck & Bram De Rock, 2011. "Revealed Preference Analysis of Non‐Cooperative Household Consumption," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 121(555), pages 1073-1096, September.
    20. Satoru Fujishige & Zaifu Yang, 2002. "Existence of an Equilibrium in a General Competitive Exchange Economy with Indivisible Goods and Money," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 3(1), pages 135-147, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Afriat's theorem; GARP; indivisibilities; revealed preference.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D11 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Theory
    • C60 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - General

    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:yor:yorken:12/02. 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: Paul Hodgson (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deyoruk.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.