Economic and Planning Research

This paper presents a model to explain choice behavior in contexts where expanding the set of available options leads decision makers to select alternatives that would not have been justifiable under more limited choice sets. Unlike existing justification-based models, in which the difficulty of justifying a choice increases with the number of alternatives—potentially leading to a preference for smaller sets—our framework ensures that welfare does not decrease as the choice set expands. Thus, the model upholds the principle that "more is better." Following the model’s introduction, we examine the implications for revealed preferences and identify a characterizing axiom that distinguishes this framework. This axiom provides a basis for non-parametric empirical testing of the model.