Associative networks in decision making

• Main Authors: LI, Jiangtao, TANG, Rui, ZHANG, Mu
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2024
• Subjects: associative network; random attention; consideration set; random choice; availability and observability; Economic Theory
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soe_research/2766; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soe_research/article/3765/viewcontent/Association_20240916.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

We present a model of associative networks that captures how a decision maker expands her consideration set through mental associations between alternatives. This model serves as a tool to understand the influence of association on decision making. As a proof of concept, we characterize this model within a random attention framework and demonstrate that all the relevant parameters are uniquely identifiable. Notably, in a novel choice domain where not all observable alternatives are available, the presence of unavailable alternatives can affect the choice frequencies of other alternatives through association.