Matthew Polisson
Professor of Economics
University of Leicester
University of Leicester
Research Fields
Applied Microeconomics, Microeconomic Theory
Recent Research Papers
Ever since Ellsberg (with Aluma Dembo, Shachar Kariv, and John K.-H. Quah), 2026. Develops and implements revealed preference tests for subjective expected utility theory (EUT) and non-EUT models of ambiguity aversion, and finds that individual choices are as consistent with utility maximization and expected utility maximization under uncertainty as under risk, but with greater empirical scope for non-EUT models under uncertainty than under risk. Working Paper: arXiv:2607.09355.
Revealed Preference with Optimal Transport: Money Pumps, Bounded Rationality, and Preference Recovery (with Joshua Lanier and John K.-H. Quah), 2026. Explores money pumps in relation to bounded rationality, and provides a consistent estimator for true utility by exploiting a novel connection between revealed preference and optimal transport. Working Paper: arXiv:2404.04843.
Ever since Allais (with Aluma Dembo, Shachar Kariv, and John K.-H. Quah), Journal of Political Economy, 2026. Reports an experiment that nonparametrically tests the entire set of axioms on which expected utility theory (EUT) is based, and finds that within-subjects departures from independence are small relative to departures from ordering (completeness and transitivity) and/or monotonicity with respect to first-order stochastic dominance (FOSD) (doi: 10.1086/739829).
Revealed Preference Analysis with Partially Observed Prices (with Ian Crawford and Carl-Emil Pless), 2025. Demonstrates that revealed preference analysis remains feasible in the presence of partially observed prices, even while agnostic about the nature of missing prices.