A Note on Rationalizability of Choice Functions

laid the foundation of revealed preference approach to the theory of consumer behavior. The approach was distinctly novel in the sense that it tried to ex-plain the demand function from the individual's choice behavior itself and did not need to assume the existence of some ordinal utility function. Attempts were made to see whether the axiom proposed by him, now popularly known as the weak axiom of revealed preference, ensured the existence of an ordinal utility function that can generate such choices. The weak axiom failed to ensure that but succeeded in provoking a vast pool of literature in the area throughout the last century which enriched the consumer theory as well as the theory of social choice. Houthakker (1950) showed that a modied and I am deeply indebted to Professor Satish K. Jain for his guidance and suggestions. I also wish to thank Papiya Ghosh for her useful comments.