GARP for Kids: On the Development of Rational Choice Behavior

In this paper, the results of an experiment that tests whether children make rational choices about consumption goods are reported. Seven and 11-year-old children, and for comparison, college undergraduates, were studied. The experiment tests variations on what might be seen as the most basic requirement for rationality, namely that choices must obey transitivity. How rationality, as measured by several different tests of transitivity and by a simple measure of the size of the violations, changes with age and mathematical ability, is also examined.