IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/halshs-03282198.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Decision under normative uncertainty

Author

Listed:
  • Franz Dietrich

    (CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Brian Jabarian

    (UP1 UFR10 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - UFR Philosophie - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

While ordinary decision theory focuses on empirical uncertainty, real decision-makers also face normative uncertainty: uncertainty about value itself. From a purely formal perspective, normative uncertainty is comparable to (Harsanyian or Rawlsian) identity uncertainty in the ‘original position', where one's future values are unknown. A comprehensive decision theory must address twofold uncertainty – normative and empirical. We present a simple model of twofold uncertainty, and show that the most popular decision principle – maximizing expected value (‘Expectationalism') – has different formulations, namely Ex-Ante Expectationalism, Ex-Post Expectationalism, and hybrid theories. These alternative theories recommend different decisions, reasoning modes, and attitudes to risk. But they converge under an interesting (necessary and sufficient) condition.

Suggested Citation

  • Franz Dietrich & Brian Jabarian, 2021. "Decision under normative uncertainty," Post-Print halshs-03282198, HAL.
  • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-03282198
    DOI: 10.1017/S0266267121000201
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-03282198
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-03282198/document
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1017/S0266267121000201?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
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Zou, Wenbo & Gao, Wenzheng, 2023. "Measuring the welfare and spillover effects of rank information," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 187-220.
    2. Cecchini, Mathilde, 2024. "Into the Unknown - Conceptualizing Citizens' Experiences of Uncertainty in Citizen-state Interactions," OSF Preprints 96pjt, Center for Open Science.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    normative and empirical uncertainty; general framework; normative uncertainty versus identity uncertainty in Harsanyi and Rawls; maximizing expected value; ex ante versus ex post perspective;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty

    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:hal:journl:halshs-03282198. 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: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.