Identification of consideration sets from choice data

Abstract

We show that many bounded rationality patterns of choice can be alternatively represented as testable models of limited consideration, and we elicit the features of the associated unobserved consideration sets from the observed choice. Moreover, we characterize some testable choice procedures in which the DM considers as few alternatives as possible. These properties, compatible with the empirical evidence, allow the experimenter to uniquely infer the DM's unobserved consideration sets from irrational features of the observed behavior.