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Mind 2005 114(454):239-248; doi:10.1093/mind/fzi239
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© Dietrich and List 2005

The Two-Envelope Paradox: An Axiomatic Approach

Franz Dietrich1 and Christian List2

1 Center for Junior Research Fellows, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany franz.dietrich{at}uni-konstanz.de, 2 Department of Government, London School of Economics, London, WC2A 2AE, UK c.list{at}lse.ac.uk

In this paper, we present a simple axiomatic justification for indifference before opening, avoiding any expectation reasoning, which is often considered problematic in infinite cases. Although the two-envelope paradox assumes an expectation-maximizing agent, we show that analogous paradoxes arise for agents using difierent decision principles such as maximin and maximax, and that our justification for indifierence before opening applies here too.


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