We propose and develop a theory of choice free of concepts such as utility function or preference relation. We replace the primitives used in traditional rational choice theories by similarity function— used to compare any alternative to a reference alternative— and a minimum distance choice function. It is shown that this model can explain the appearance of intransitive choices, which are cent...

The standard formulation of the microeconomic theory of fertility, which emphasizes the demand for children and, to a lesser extent, the costs of fertility control, is too limited in its scope for use by most demographers and sociologists. The approach advanced in this paper adds to the usual theory a more explicit and formal treatment of the production of children, including the possibility of...

This survey paper has three themes; a microeconomic analysis of institutions, an institutional analysis of microeconomics, and a discussion on the scope for an “institutional microeconomics” that takes insights from psychology and older institutional theory into account. Institutions are defined as the long-run rules of the economy that have the character of public goods and whose main function...