arXiv subjects

Karl H. Schlag

Publications and source records attributed to Karl H. Schlag.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Putting Context into Preference Aggregation

The axioms underlying Arrow's impossibility theorem are very restrictive in terms of what can be used when aggregating preferences. Social preferences may not depend on the menu nor on preferences over alternatives outside the menu. But context matters. So, we weaken these restrictions to allow for context to be included. The context, as we define, describes which alternatives in the menu and which preferences over alternatives outside the menu matter. We obtain unique representations. These are discussed in examples involving markets, the intertemporal well-being of an individual, and bargaining.

econ.TH↗

arXiv2020

Robust Sequential Search

We study sequential search without priors. Our interest lies in decision rules that are close to being optimal under each prior and after each history. We call these rules dynamically robust. The search literature employs optimal rules based on cutoff strategies that are not dynamically robust. We derive dynamically robust rules and show that their performance exceeds 1/2 of the optimum against binary environments and 1/4 of the optimum against all environments. This performance improves substantially with the outside option value, for instance, it exceeds 2/3 of the optimum if the outside option exceeds 1/6 of the highest possible alternative.

econ.TH↗