Tests of Competing Theories of Consumer Choice and the Representative Consumer Hypothesis.

Tests of Competing Theories of Consumer Choice and the Representative Consumer Hypothesis In this paper, the authors estimate demand functions for individual agents. They test if commonly-used functions are consisten t with the data and if parameters are the same across subjects. The y examine decision rules based on random choice, psychological and bi ological models of choice, and utility functions commonly employed in the economics literature. A generalized minimum-needs hypothesis per forms well across experimental conditions and individual subjects. St atistically significant differences in tastes across subjects were id entified in the data. Copyright 1987 by Royal Economic Society.