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Revealed stochastic preference: a synthesis

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Summary.

The problem of revealed stochastic preference is whether probability distributions of observed choices in a population for various choice situations are consistent with a hypothesis of maximization of preference preorders by members of the population. This is a population analog of the classical revealed preference problem in economic consumer theory. This paper synthesizes the solutions to this problem that have been obtained by Marcel K. Richter and the author, and by J. C. Falmagne, in the case of finite sets of alternatives, and utilizes unpublished research of Richter and the author to give results for the non-finite choice sets encountered in economic consumer theory.

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Correspondence to Daniel L. McFadden.

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Received: 13 March 2003, Revised: 11 February 2004,

JEL Classification Numbers:

D1, C6.

The preparation of this paper was supported by the E. Morris Cox endowment at the University of California, Berkeley. I am indebted to Robert Anderson, Salvador Barbara, Werner Hildenbrand, Rosa L. Matzkin, and Aviv Nevo for useful suggestions and comments. I am especially indebted to Marcel K. Richter, who was the source of many of the ideas and arguments contained in this paper.

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McFadden, D.L. Revealed stochastic preference: a synthesis. Economic Theory 26, 245–264 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00199-004-0495-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00199-004-0495-3

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