Fiche du document
9 mai 2024
- 2405.06108
Mots-clés
Economics - Theoretical EconomicsSujets proches
Economic theory Political economy Animal behavior Habits and behaviorCiter ce document
Fedor Sandomirskiy et al., « The geometry of consumer preference aggregation », arXiv - économie
Partage / Export
Résumé
We revisit a classical question of how individual consumer preferences and incomes shape aggregate behavior. We develop a method that applies to populations with homothetic preferences and reduces the hard problem of aggregation to simply computing a weighted average in the space of logarithmic expenditure functions. We apply the method to identify aggregation-invariant preference domains, characterize aggregate preferences from common domains like linear or Leontief, and describe indecomposable preferences that do not correspond to the aggregate behavior of any non-trivial population. Applications include robust welfare analysis, information design, discrete choice models, pseudo-market mechanisms, and preference identification.