Preference and the cost of preferential choice (Q1076591)

Inspired by the pioneering work by Jacob Marschak, the paper suggests a model for introducing, and accounting for, the cost of rational decision- making within the particular context of consumer's preferential binary choice. According to the model, a 'rational accounting for cost' consumer might fail - except under in each case specified restrictive conditions, referring to the cost of comparison involved - to satisfy any but the weakest preference properties usually presumed. The results are related to some well-known intuitive criticisms of traditional preference theory, and also to some wider consumer- and welfare-economic aspects.