Flexibility of Choice versus Reduction of Ambiguity

Ani Guerdjikova and Alexander Zimper
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Ani Guerdjikova: Cornell U

Working Papers from Cornell University, Center for Analytic Economics

Abstract: This paper explores the problem of a social planner willing to improve the welfare of individuals who are unable to compare all available alternatives. The optimal decision trades off the individuals' desire for flexibility versus their aversion towards ambiguous choice situations. We introduce an axiom system that formalizes this idea. Our main result characterizes the preference maximizing opportunity set. It is a maximal set that consists of mutually comparable alternatives. It also has the property that it maximizes the sum of the distances between its ordered elements for some appropriate metric imposed on the set of possible choices.

JEL-codes: D69 D81 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006-08
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https://cae.economics.cornell.edu/06-14.pdf

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Journal Article: Flexibility of choice versus reduction of ambiguity (2008)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ecl:corcae:06-14

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