Dataset from an experiment on transitivity

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Abstract

Experimental economics, which applies laboratory methods to study the interactions of human beings in social contexts, makes it possible to evaluate the transitivity of consumer preferences. This data set presents the results of an experiment on preferences in three different situations: 1) individuals faced with goods choices without restrictions; 2) individuals facing budget restrictions and price changes; and 3) individuals faced with decreased disposable income. The experiment was conducted on subjects with different characteristics i.e., different genders, women and men, different work situations, employed and unemployed, different age ranges, and different economic positions, divided into low, medium and high. In addition, the experiment had two phases, the first one prior to the experiment as such, called pilot, which objective was to calibrate the consistency of the instrument (survey), not to measure transitivity itself. The second one, was conducted on 70 subjects some of which came from the central bank of Ecuador, and others came from the Catholic University.

Original languageEnglish
Article number111711
JournalData in Brief
Volume61
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2025

Funding

The authors would like to thank the Indoamerica Technological University where the experiment was carried out. Also, we thanks to Central Bank of Ecuador and Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador whose workers and students participated in the experiment. Additionally, the authors would like to thank the Institute of Highest National Studies for support and finance this publication. The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Funders
Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador

    Keywords

    • Consumer preferences patterns
    • Edible and nonedible goods
    • Preference reversal phenomenon

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