Abstract
We study the problem of ranking opportunity sets in terms of freedom of choice. The analysis is based on the notion of essential alternatives introduced in Puppe (J Econ Theory 68:174–199, 1996). An alternative in an opportunity set is called essential if by deleting it, the reduced opportunity set offers less freedom than the original set. We provide an axiomatic characterization of the ranking according to which an opportunity set offers more freedom than another opportunity set if its share of essential elements in their union is larger.
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Earlier versions of this article have circulated since 1995, the first version under the title “Assessing Freedom of Choice in Terms of Essential Alternatives,” a later version under the title “Revealed Preference for Freedom and Ordinal Rankings of Opportunity Sets.” We are grateful to two anonymous referees for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of the article.
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Puppe, C., Xu, Y. Essential alternatives and freedom rankings. Soc Choice Welf 35, 669–685 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00355-010-0457-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00355-010-0457-6