Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T11:04:02.309Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

ON DOMINANCE AND CONTEXT-DEPENDENCE IN DECISIONS INVOLVING MULTIPLE ATTRIBUTES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2012

Prasanta K. Pattanaik  and
Yongsheng Xu
Prasanta K. Pattanaik
Affiliation:
University of California, Riverside, [email protected]
Yongsheng Xu
Affiliation:
Georgia State University, [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In decision-making involving multiple criteria or attributes, a decision maker first identifies all relevant evaluative attributes in making decisions. Then, a dominance principle is often invoked whenever applicable: whenever an option x is better than an option y in terms of some attribute and no worse than y in terms of any other attributes, x is judged to be better than y. If, however, this dominance principle is not applicable, then the decision maker determines the relative importance between the identified evaluative attributes, consults with contextual features of the options under consideration, and makes a decision. It is shown that the combination of these principles runs into problems in the presence of rationality properties, such as transitivity, and a weak continuity requirement on decisions. The paper gives examples from welfare economics, and theories of individual and group decisions.

Type
Articles
Information
Economics & Philosophy , Volume 28 , Issue 2: Formal Ethics , July 2012 , pp. 117 - 132
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Brun, B.C. and Tungodden, B. 2004. The indexing impasse: is ‘the intersection approach’ a solution?. Social Choice and Welfare 22: 49–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hare, C. 2007. Rationality and the distant needy. Philosophy and Public Affairs 35: 161–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleurbaey, M. 2007 a. Social choice and the indexing dilemma. Social Choice and Welfare 29: 633–648.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleurbaey, M. 2007 b. Social choice and just institutions: new perspectives. Economics and Philosophy 23: 15–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaplow, L. and Shavell, S. 2001. Any non-welfarist method of policy assessment violates the Pareto principle. Journal of Political Economy 109: 281–286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luce, R. D. and Raiffa, H. 1957. Games and Decisions. New York: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Maslow, A. 1943. A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review 50: 370–396.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maslow, A. 1954. Motivation and Personality. New York: Harper and Row; 2nd edition: 1970, 3rd edition: 1987.Google Scholar
Pattanaik, P.K. and Xu, Y. 2007. Minimal relativism, dominance, and standard of living comparisons based on functionings. Oxford Economic Papers 59: 354–374.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sen, A. 1970 a. Collective Choice and Social Welfare. San Francisco, CA: Holden-Day.Google Scholar
Sen, A. 1970 b. The impossibility of a Paretian liberal. Journal of Political Economy 70: 152–157.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sen, A. 1976. Liberty, unanimity, and rights. Economica 43: 217–245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sen, A. 1985. Commodities and Capabilities. Amsterdam: North-Holland.Google Scholar
Sen, A. 1987. The Standard of Living. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sen, A. 1993. Internal consistency of choice. Econometrica 61: 495–521.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Streeten, P. and Burki, S. 1978. Basic needs: some issues. World Development 6: 411–421.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Streeten, P., Burki, S., Haq, M. ul, Hicks, N. and Stewart, F. 1981. First Things First: Meeting Basic Needs in Developing Countries. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Weymark, J. 2008. Must one be an ogre to rationally prefer aiding the nearby to the distant needy? Presidential Address, 9th International Meeting of the Society of Social Choice and Welfare, June 19–22, 2008, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada.Google Scholar