THE POSSIBILITY OF GROUP WELFARE FUNCTIONS

Thomas L. Saaty () and Luis G. Vargas ()
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Thomas L. Saaty: Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
Luis G. Vargas: Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA

International Journal of Information Technology & Decision Making (IJITDM), 2005, vol. 04, issue 02, 167-176

Abstract: This paper gives a brief overview of the well-known impossibility-possibility theorem in constructing a social welfare function from individual functions. The Analytic Hierarchy Process uses a fundamental scale of absolute numbers to represent judgments about dominance in paired comparisons. It is shown that it is possible to derive such a function in two ways. One is from the synthesized functions of the judgments of each of the individuals. The other is obtained by first combining corresponding pairwise comparison judgments made by all the individuals, thus obtaining a matrix of combined judgments for the group and then deriving a welfare function for the group. With consistency the four conditions imposed by Arrow are satisfied. With inconsistency, an additional condition is needed.

Keywords: Social welfare function; analytic hierarchy process; synthesis; geometric mean; possibility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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DOI: 10.1142/S0219622005001453

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