Motivated by the empirical findings concerning the importance of one’s current situation on her choice behavior, the main objective of this paper is to propose a rational choice theory that allows for the presence of a status quo bias, and that incorporates the standard choice theory as a special case. We follow a revealed preference approach, and obtain two nested models of rational choice tha...

Some empirically minded philosophers of science argue that the evidence should choose the best theory from among theoretical rivals. However, the evidence may not speak clearly, a problem of ‘underdetermination of theory by data’. We examine this problem in a concrete setting, rival theories of smoking behaviour. We investigate whether several uncontested pieces of empirical evidence allow us t...

This paper contributes to the theory of rational choice under sequential criteria. Following the approach initiated by Manzini and Mariotti (2007) for single-valued choice functions, we characterize choice correspondences that are rational by two sequential criteria under a mild consistency axiom. Rationales ensuring the sequential rationalization are explicitly constructed and a uniquely deter...

Introduction In a recent essay Christiano (2004) coined a distinction between 'mainstream' and 'revisionist' rational choice political theory, and cast us in the role of revisionist theorists 1. While we disagree with some aspects of Christiano's argument 2 , we broadly accept our designated role as revisionist public choice theorists. The major purposes of this brief paper are to provide a sum...

Organizational theorists built their knowledge of decision-making through a progressive critique of rational choice theory. Their positioning towards rationality however, is at odds with the observation of rationality persistence in organizational life. This paper addresses this paradox. It proposes a new perspective on rationality that allows the theorizing of the production of rational decisi...

The main purpose of this paper is to provide a brief overview of the rational choice approach, followed by an identification of several of the major criticisms of RCT and its conceptual and empirical limitations. It goes on to present a few key initiatives to develop alternative, more realistic approaches which transcend some of the limitations of Rational Choice Theory (RCT). Finally, the arti...

Even as rational choice theory is increasingly used in sociology, ¢nding its way into such diverse subdisciplines as the sociology of the family, religion, gender, crime, race, strati¢cation, and economic sociology, it remains hotly contested. It has spurred a rancorous debate that, at its worst, ‘‘degenerates into a caricatured contrast between a cold and calculating egoist engaged at the brea...