Aggregation without the Aggravation? Nonparametric Analysis of the Representative Consumer

Laurens Cherchye, Ian Crawford, Bram De Rock and Frederic Vermeulen

No 6266, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: In the tradition of Afriat (1967), Diewert (1973) and Varian (1982), we provide a revealed preference characterisation of the representative consumer. Our results are simple and complement those of Gorman (1953, 1961), Samuelson (1956) and others. They can also be applied to data very readily and without the need for auxilliary parametric or statistical assumptions. We investigate the application of our characterisation by means of a balanced microdata panel survey. Our findings provide robust evidence against the existence of a representative consumer for our data.

Keywords: revealed preference; aggregation; Gorman polar form; GARP (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D10 D30 D60 E10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 2011-12
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Aggregation without the aggravation? Nonparametric analysis of the representative consumer (2012)
Working Paper: Aggregation without the aggravation? Nonparametric analysis of the representative consumer (2012)
Working Paper: Aggregation without the aggravation? Nonparametric analysis of the representative consumer (2011)
Working Paper: Aggregation without the Aggravation? Nonparametric Analysis of the Representative Consumer (2011)
Working Paper: Aggregation without the Aggravation? Nonparametric Analysis of the Representative Consumer (2011)
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