Garrett Fiegenbaum

Working Papers

Preference for Flexibility with Uncertain Random Choice 

I model a special case of incomplete preferences and establish a representation for compatible preferences. Specifically, I extend the model of Ahn and Sarver (2013) for uncertain decision makers (DM). The DM makes a two-stage decision. In the first stage, the DM chooses a menu. In the second stage, the DM chooses from that menu. During the first stage, the DM is unsure of her future preference, so her second-stage preference is modelled as a stochastic choice. Uncertainty (ambiguity) enters her problem through  a non-singular set of prospective preferences, which her second-stage preference is drawn from. As in Bewley (2002), the non-unique beliefs can prevent the DM from ranking some alternatives, leaving her preference incomplete. 

Uncertainty and Regret with Gabriel Ziegler previously titled "Smooth Bewley preferences" 

(draft forthcoming; slides here)

We provide a general framework for decision making in the face of ambiguity wherein Decision Makers’ (DMs) preferences satisfy independence over lotteries but need not satisfy completeness and transitivity. Our representation includes an ambiguity attitude functional with a novel and desirable interpretation. We then show that our model captures a tradeoff between completeness and transitivity, and characterize other popular preferences in the regret/ambiguity literature as special cases. 

Works in Progress 

Bargaining for Goods with Depreciation and Expiration (slides here)

Endogenous Inequality with R&D with Leonardo Urrea-Rios and Ruiyu Zhu