Reason-based choice and context-dependence: an explanatory framework

Franz Dietrich and Christian List

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: We introduce a “reason-based” framework for explaining and predicting individual choices. The key idea is that a decision-maker focuses on some but not all properties of the options and chooses an option whose “motivationally salient” properties he/she most prefers. Reason-based explanations can capture two kinds of contextdependent choice: (i) the motivationally salient properties may vary across choice contexts, and (ii) they may include “context-related” properties, not just “intrinsic” properties of the options. Our framework allows us to explain boundedly rational and sophisticated choice behaviour. Since properties can be recombined in new ways, it also offers resources for predicting choices in unobserved contexts.

Keywords: rational choice; reasons; context-dependence; bounded and sophisticated rationality; prediction of choice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe and nep-mic
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

Published in Economics and Philosophy, July, 2016, 32(2), pp. 175-229. ISSN: 0266-2671

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/64219/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: REASON-BASED CHOICE AND CONTEXT-DEPENDENCE: AN EXPLANATORY FRAMEWORK (2016)
Working Paper: Reason-based choice and context-dependence: An explanatory framework (2016)
Working Paper: Reason-based choice and context-dependence: An explanatory framework (2016)
Working Paper: Reason-based choice and context-dependence: An explanatory framework (2016)
Working Paper: Reason-based choice and context-dependence: An explanatory framework (2015)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:64219

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library LSE Library Portugal Street London, WC2A 2HD, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager ().