Individuals’ preferences over opportunity sets may display “preference for flexibility” which prescribes to gradually eliminate
alternatives from a given set until a final choice is made. One rationale for this preference for flexibility is individuals’
incentive to postpone the final choice in order to better learn their underlying preferences over basic alternatives. In this
paper we show that even in the absence of learning, preference for flexibility arises if individuals are risk-averse or, at
least, are not very risk-seeking. Thus, individual’s attitude towards risk provides yet another rationale for preference for
flexibility. One of our results is that in the absence of learning, risk-neutral as well as risk-averse individuals display
the same, maximal preference for flexibility.
Keywords Individual choice - Preference for flexibility - Risk attitude
JEL Classification D01 - D81
We thank Han Bleichrodt, Robert Dur, Chaim Fershtman, Maarten Janssen, Peran van Reeven, Peter Wakker, and Timothy van Zandt
for helpful comments to and inspiring discussions. We are very grateful to the anonymous referee for very constructive comments
and suggestions.