Abstract

Recent advances in economic theory, largely motivated by experimental findings, have led to the adoption of models of human behavior where decision-makers take into consideration not only their own payoff but also others’ payoffs and any potential consequences of these payoffs. Investigations of deontological motivations, where decision-makers make their choice based on not only the consequences of a decision but also the decision per se, have been rare. We provide a formal interpretation of major moral philosophies and a revealed preference method to distinguish the presence of deontological motivations from a purely consequentialist decision-maker whose preferences satisfy first-order stochastic dominance.

Replaces

Daniel L. Chen, and Martin Schonger, “Social preferences or sacred values? Theroy and evidence of deontological motivations”, IAST Working Paper, n. 16-59, October 2016.