Why fix it when it ain't broken? A reply to Henning's critique

This rejoinder discusses Henning's arguments against my model for exchange systems with restricted market access. It also presents an alternative rational choice model that combines Henning's central demands with my original modeling idea (according to which restricted access has effects before the optimization). This alternative approach yields similar conclusions as my earlier analysis. A comparison with Henning's results (which refer to a scenario in which access restrictions explicitly enter the optimization program) suggests that the respective model implications depend crucially on the decision where and how restricted access is introduced into a model. From this perspective, Henning's negative assessment of my work is questionable because, in the absence of empirical evidence, he has no better rationale for modeling restricted access than I do.