Independence and Variational Bewley Preferences: A Note

This note studies some alternatives and weak versions of the Independence axiom in a decision theoretic framework under uncertainty. We propose a characterization of this axiom using a property called Weight Independence. Moreover we study how the Independence axiom is related with the Variational Bewley model of Faro [2015]. We show that Variational Bewley preferences satisfy a weaker form of independence called Independence for Constant Weights. This topic gives us the opportunity to discuss the pioneeristic contributions of David Schmeidler on the weakening of the Independence axiom.