Dear Catherine,

The most important foundation work on choice theory is Vilfredo Pareto's two part article from 1900 entitled: "Sunto di alcuni capitoli di un nuovo trattato di economia pura del Prof. Pareto" (Giornali degli Economisti, 2(20), March and June 1900, pp. 216-235 and pp. 511-549").

An English version of the article (translated by John Cairncross and edited by John Chipman) was published in 2008: "Summary of some chapters of a new treatise on pure economics by Professor Pareto" (Giornali degli Economisti e Annali di Economia, 97(3), December 2008, pp. 453-504).

Marco Dardi, in "Choice, Preference and Rationalizability in Pareto's Theory of Economic behavior" (December 2006, International Review of Economics, 53(4), pp. 476-490), has discussed how Pareto's suggestions for an empirically-oriented theory of choice were to be subsequently developed in the literature on revealed preference - though he also points to the 'substantial departures' from Pareto's initial design that occurred in that process.

Good luck with your project.

Regards,
Michael McLure

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Societies for the History of Economics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Catherine Herfeld
Sent: 03 November 2010 04:52
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [SHOE] SHOE: QUERY--choice based approach of individual decision

Dear list members,

I have the following two requests and maybe some of you have
recommendations: 

1. Can anybody recommend literature (in history of economic thought or
philosophy) on the origins of and influences on the "choice - based
approach" to human decision making in for example microeconomics ( as
opposed to the "preference-based approach"), apart from Samuelson, the early
game theorists, Savage, Arrow and Sen?

2. Does anyone know of an (early) example of a model of consumer behavior
based upon that approach?

I would be grateful for some comments!

Best wishes,
Catherine Herfeld

(PhD Student Philosophy of Economics - Witten/Herdecke University)