ABSTRACT
The neoclassical theory of consumer choice describes the process by which an autonomous rational consumer allocates income at the margin among an array of consumer goods. As any scientific model does, neoclassical utility theory describes part of reality in the simplest way possible to explain the phenomena under consideration. The choice theory draws an ‘analytical boundary’ (Georgescu-Roegen 1971) around an individual consumer, ignoring the social and ecological contexts, to examine how an individual makes choices in a well-defined market. It is widely recognized that the axioms of consumer choice theory are quite restrictive, but its defenders argue that this simplification still captures the basic features of decisionmaking and is necessary in any analytical representation of complex reality.
