Some new impossibility theorems

We consider social preferences over infinite horizon intergenerational consumption paths. We use the Mackey topology to define continuity of social preferences. Our main objective is to generalize one of Diamond’s impossibility theorems. First, we show that the trivial preference relation is the only asymmetric social preference relation satisfying equity and continuity. Second, we compare Campbell’s impossibility theorem with ours. Finally we use an order-based notion of myopia and establish another impossibility result.

4 - SIMPLICITY: IMPOSSIBILITY THEOREMS

Chapter 5* - ANONYMITY, NEUTRALITY AND RESPONSIVENESS

Arrow-type results under fuzzy preferences based on filter and ultrafilter

Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem inspired subjective image quality assessment approach

While studies of social welfare functionals have shown that some interpersonal comparability such as ordinal and level comparability and cardinal and unit comparability resolves Arrow’s impossibility theorem, the kind of information necessary to solve this issue remains unclear. To address this shortcoming in the body of knowledge on this topic, the present study captures and then characterizes the features of informational structures that make available social welfare functionals satisfying Strong Pareto, Anonymity, and Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives. We know from this characterization that if utility levels are not interpersonally comparable, then transformed utility functions by a certain transformation need to be cardinal and unit comparable.

In this work, we study the decision-making processes of heterogeneous agents, who take decisions regarding their individual preferences as well as their attempt to conform. Under the assumptions of certain topologies of interactions and with cognitive and informational restrictions, we analyze the evolution of these decisions over time with an agent-based model. In addition, the study analyzes the existence of a power-law in the convergence of the model to dynamic equilibrium. To this aim, the notion of interface density is introduced, as a measure for the speed of convergence, and linked to the dynamic analysis. The results of this work allow us to understand how social processes influence the relationship between individual and social preferences, along with the influence of random decisions made by individuals. A greater importance of the individual component implies outcomes with polarization processes (a greater quantity of groups). In a model with random decisions, patterns of conformity arise more frequently.

Individual social welfare preferences: An experimental study

Utility independence versus IIA property in independent probit models

Cost-benefit analysis, so it has been argued, is a means of identifying policies which society prefers. The difficulty lies in deciding what precisely is meant by 'society prefers'. In the context of CBA, saying 'society prefers x to y' constitutes in effect a recommendation that A be adopted. Hence no definition of social preference can be value-free. The discussion so far has, for example, been based on the value judgement that individual preferences should count. This implies that social preference is interpreted as an aggregate to be constructed from individual preferences. The question then is: in what way is it to be constructed?

Pathogen threat and unfamiliar males rapidly bias the social responses of female mice

Digital contact-tracing applications (DCTAs) can help control the spread of epidemics, such as the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. But people in Western societies fail to install DCTAs. Understanding the low use rate is key for policy makers who support DCTAs as a way to avoid harsh nationwide lockdowns. In a preregistered study in a representative German-speaking Swiss sample (N = 757), the roles of individual risk perceptions, risk preferences, social preferences, and social values in the acceptance of and compliance with DCTA were compared. The results show a high compliance with the measures recommended by DCTAs but a comparatively low acceptance of DCTAs. Risk preferences and perceptions, but not social preferences, influenced accepting DCTAs; a high health-risk perception and a low data-security-risk perception increased acceptance. Additionally, support of political measures, technical abilities, and understanding the DCTA functionality had large effects on accepting DCTAs. Therefore, we recommend highlighting personal health risks and clearly explaining DCTAs, focusing on data security, to enhance DCTA acceptance.

Covariance heterogeneity in nested logit models: Econometric structure and application to intercity travel

The Consumer Panel of Australia data collected by The Roy Morgan Research Centre is used to investigate the determinants of brand choice behavior in the laundry detergent market. To reduce potential problems of heterogeneity in the market all purchases of the eleven leading brands in the Melbourne metropolitan area over the period July 1992 to June 1993 are considered. The purchases over this period are divided into an estimation sample and a holdout sample. A mixed Logit model is then fitted using the estimation sample. Price, brand loyalty, household size and household income are found to be significant in explaining brand choice behavior. A test for the, potentially restrictive, property of Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives (IIA) is carried out and it is found that IIA is acceptable for this data. The model appears to fit well and estimated elasticities are presented. The estimated model is then validated using the holdout sample. It is found that the model is very good at predicting the brand choices made by consumers in the holdout sample.

I present a decision in which causal decision theory appears to violate the independence of irrelevant alternatives (IIA) and normal-form extensive-form equivalence (NEE). I show that these violations lead to exploitable behaviour and long-run poverty. These consequences appear damning, but I urge caution. This decision should lead causalists to a better understanding of what it takes for a decision between some collection of options to count as a subdecision of a decision between a larger collection of options. And with this better understanding of subdecisions in hand, causalists will not violate IIA or NEE. This decision will also teach causalists that, in sequential decisions, a rational agent may be led to make a series of choices which are causally dominated by some other sequence of choices they could have made instead. I will encourage causalists to recognize this as an intrapersonal tragedy of the commons.