Article ID: | iaor1989281 |
Country: | Switzerland |
Volume: | 19 |
Start Page Number: | 273 |
End Page Number: | 298 |
Publication Date: | May 1989 |
Journal: | Annals of Operations Research |
Authors: | Chew S.H. |
This paper focuses on the betweenness property of expected utility theory. It provides an axiomatization of the class of betweenness-conforming utility theories. Subclasses of betweenness-conforming preferences are axiomatized with ‘substitution’ axioms of intermediate generality. The latter axioms incorporate specifically the effects of replacing a certain outcome with a lottery that is indifferent to it. The present representation is applied to the second-price auction mechanism where it is shown that its demand-revelation property under expected utility is not robust with respect to the class of betweenness-conforming preferences.