Understanding Preference Imprecision
31 Pages Posted: 11 Jan 2019 Last revised: 28 Mar 2019
Date Written: January 2, 2019
Abstract
The term ‘preference imprecision’ seems to have different meanings to different people. In the literature, one can find references to a number of expressions. For example: vagueness, incompleteness, randomness, unsureness, indecisiveness and thick indifference curves. Some of these are theoretical constructs, some are empirical. The purpose of this paper is to survey the various different approaches and to try to link them together: to see if they are all addressed to the same issue, and to come to some conclusions. In the course of this survey, we report on evidence concerning the existence of preference imprecision, and its impact on theoretical and empirical work.
Keywords: preference imprecision, stochastic models, anomalies, incompleteness, equivalence interval, vagueness, strength of preference
JEL Classification: D0, D80, D81
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation