Are preferences complete? An experimental measurement of indecisiveness under risk

Eric Danan () and Anthony Ziegelmeyer

Discussion Papers on Strategic Interaction from Max Planck Institute of Economics, Strategic Interaction Group

Abstract: We propose an experimental design allowing a behavioral test of the axiom of completeness of individual preferences. The central feature of our design consists in enabling subjects to postpone commitment at a small cost. Our main result is that preferences are significantly incomplete. We use lotteries as choice alternatives and we find that risk aversion is globally robust to preference incompleteness.

Keywords: Incomplete preferences; preference for flexibility; risk aversion; indecisiveness; indifference (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp and nep-upt
Date: 2006-08
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