Kota Saito
Professor of Economics
Profile
The goal of Kota Saito's research is to study individual decision making. His main focus is in decision theory, developing mathematical models of decision making that account for some of the behavioral regularities documented in experimental economics and psychology.
Saito's research has centered around five main topics: (i) decision making under uncertainty, (ii) other-regarding preferences, (iii) time preferences, (iv) the role of perception in stochastic choice, and (v) response time in various decision making. Depending on the purpose of each study, he uses three primary tools: (a) preference relation, (b) consumption-price data, and (c) stochastic choice function.
- NSF Grant SES-1919263, Modeling Stochastic Intertemporal Preferences (Collaborative research with Jay Lu (UCLA)), 2019–present, PI.
- NSF Grant SES-1558757, Revealed Preference Tests and Experiments for Choices under Uncertainty, 2016– present, Co-PI with F. Echenique.
- Pension Research Council/TIAA Institute Partnership Grant 2017-2018.
Featured News
Selected Publications
Published/Forthcoming Papers
- Testable Implications of Models of Intertemporal Choice: Exponential Discounting and Its Generalizations Forthcoming in American Economic Journal: Microeconomics joint with Federico Echenique and Taisuke Imai. [pdf] [online appendix pdf]
- The Relation between Behavior under Risk and over Time American Economic Journal: Insight 2 (1): 1-16 joint with Anujit Chakraborty and Yoram Halevy. [pdf] [online appendix pdf]
- Random Intertemporal Choice 2018 Journal of Economic Theory 177: 780-815 joint with Jay Lu. [pdf]
- On path independent stochastic choice 2017 Theoretical Economics 13(1): 61–85 joint with David Ahn and Federico Echenique. [pdf]
- Response Time and Utility 2017 Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 139(15): 49–59 joint with Federico Echenique. [pdf]
- Testing theories of financial decision making 2016 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113(15): 4003–370 joint with Federico Echenique and Chris Chambers. [pdf] [submitted version] [online appendix (Proof of Theorem 4)]
- Impure Altruism and Impure Selfishness 2015 Journal of Economic Theory 158: 336–370. [pdf]
- Savage in the Market 2015 Econometrica 83: 1457–1495. joint with Federico Echenique. [pdf] [online appendix]
- Preferences for Flexibility and Randomization under Uncertainty 2015. American Economic Review 105: 1246–1271. [pdf] [online appendix]
- Social Preferences under Risk: Equality of Opportunity vs. Equality of Outcome 2013. American Economic Review 103: 3084–3101. [pdf]
- Strotz Meets Allais: Diminishing Impatience and the Certainty Effect: Comment 2011 American Economic Review 101: 2271–2275. [pdf]
For more information on Professor Saito's published and forthcoming papers, please visit his website.
Working Papers
- Repeated Choice: A Theory of Stochastic Intertemporal Preferences joint with Jay Lu [working paper pdf] [submitted version pdf] [30 min presentation video]
- Decision Making under Uncertainty: An Experimental Study in Market Settings Current Version: Dec 06 , 2019 joint with Federico Echenique and Taisuke Imai. [pdf]
- Axiomatizations of the Mixed Logit Model First Draft: July 29, 2017, Current Version: June 17, 2018. [pdf]
- Approximate Expected Utility Rationalization Current Version: June 17, 2018 joint with Federico Echenique and Taisuke Imai. [pdf] [online appendix]
- A Relationship between Risk and Time First Draft: February 10, 2011, Current Version: April 23, 2015. [pdf]
For more information on Professor Saito's working papers, please visit his website.