A Million Answers to Twenty Questions: Choosing by Checklist

Michael Mandler, Paola Manzini and Marco Mariotti

No 3377, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Many decision models in marketing science and psychology assume that a consumer chooses by proceeding sequentially through a checklist of desirable properties. These models are contrasted to the utility maximization model of rationality in economics. We show on the contrary that the two approaches are nearly equivalent. Moreover, the length of the shortest checklist as a proportion of the number of an agent’s indifference classes shrinks to 0 (at an exponential rate) as the number of indifference classes increases. Checklists therefore provide a rapid procedural basis for utility maximization.

Keywords: bounded rationality; procedural rationality; utility maximization; choice behavior (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D01 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2008-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-mkt and nep-upt
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Published - published in: Journal of Economic Theory, 2012, 147 (1), 71-92

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Related works:
Journal Article: A million answers to twenty questions: Choosing by checklist (2012)
Working Paper: A Million Answers to Twenty Questions: Choosing by Checklist (2008)
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