Scrutiny and Conservatism

2026-08-28

AI Summary

研究探讨了在预期事后审查的情况下，个体对菜单选项保守态度的问题，通过引入‘保守性’公理并结合标准公理来刻画这一行为模式。

Abstract

We study a setting in which an agent receives private information before choosing from a menu and anticipates hindsight scrutiny. Such scrutiny creates a motive for conservatism toward menu expansions. Our key axiom, conservatism, is a direct weakening of preference for flexibility: Adding an option is weakly beneficial whenever it leaves the menu's hindsight benchmark unchanged. Together with standard axioms, conservatism characterizes a scrutiny representation of preferences over menus in which the agent behaves as if she evaluates each menu by subtracting anticipated scrutiny from the material value of informed choice. Menu preference identifies a unique minimum pair of private information and scrutiny intensity, while incorporating subsequent stochastic-choice data pins down the actual pair. Applications to medical liability and corporate innovation illustrate the implications of our model for accountability design.

Problem

• scrutiny
• conservatism
• private information
• menu expansion
• hindsight

Innovation

• Conservatism
• Hindsight Scrutiny
• Preference for Flexibility
• Anticipated Scrutiny
• Stochastic Choice