There is a surprising disconnect between formal rational choice theory and philosophical work on reasons. The one is silent on the role of reasons in rational choices, the other rarely engages with the formal models of decision problems used by social scientists. To bridge this gap, we propose a new, reason-based theory of rational choice. At its core is an account of preference formation, acco...

To clarify whether a difference exists in the redistribution preferences of Japan and China and to provide insights into the possible causes of this difference, this study conducts an experiment similar to a dictator game but in which both donors and recipients have the chance to redistribute the initial incomes. In the experiment, an initial income gap is caused by one of two kinds of tasks th...

Ambiguity preferences are important to explain human decision-making in many areas in economics and finance. To measure individual ambiguity preferences, the experimental economics literature advocates using incentivized laboratory experiments. Yet, laboratory experiments are costly and require a lot of time and administrative effort. This study develops an ambiguity preference survey module th...

An expert, trying to assess the true distribution over the states of nature, is associated with a preference relation over utility bundles. He prefers f to g if he believes that, according to the true distribution, the expected utility of f is greater than that of g. Expert I is said to be more knowledgeable than expert II (Lefort [7]) if, between the two experts, it is always beneficial to fol...

Rational choice theory analyzes how an agent can rationally act, given his or her preferences, but says little about where those preferences come from. Preferences are usually assumed to be …xed and exogenously given. Building on related work on reasons and rational choice (Dietrich and List forthcoming), we describe a framework for conceptualizing preference formation and preference change. In...

In the context of practical reasoning, such as decision making and negotiation, it is necessary to model preferences over possible outcomes. Such preferences usually depend on multiple criteria. We argue that the criteria by which outcomes are evaluated should be the satisfaction of a person’s underlying interests: the more an outcome satisfies his interests, the more preferred it is. Underlyin...

The French Lexical Network (fr-LN) is a global model of the French lexicon presently under construction. The fr-LN accounts for lexical knowledge as a lexical network structured by paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations holding between lexical units. This paper describes how morphological knowledge is presently being introduced into the fr-LN through the implementation and lexicographic exploit...

This paper provides an overview on the impacts of food aid. We consider its effects on consumption, nutrition, food markets and labour supply, as well as the extent to which it exacerbates or mitigates conflict. We also consider the comparative evidence on alternatives to food aid including evidence on cost, impact, relative risks and beneficiary preferences. We note that there are two large ga...

We consider agents who choose by proceeding through an ordered list of criteria and give the lower bound on the number of criteria that are needed for an agent to make decisions that obey a given set of preference rankings. Agents with rational preferences can always use lists with the lower-bound number of criteria while any agent with nonrational preferences must on some domains use strictly ...