Future-blindness and the product topology

Abstract

We study future-blind preferences, which are preferences that heavily discount the future, within the space of infinite consumption streams. We give two definitions: $N$-blindness, where agents ignore periods beyond a fixed date $N$, and eventual blindness, where all but finitely many dates are neglected. Using a topological approach, we show that the finest topology ensuring eventual blindness coincides with the product topology. This provides a behavioral foundation for continuity in the product topology, which was considered for studying equilibrium existence in infinite-dimensional spaces. Finally, we characterize the dual spaces under these topologies.