Efficiency under a combination of ordinal and cardinal information on preferences

Stergios Athanassoglou
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Stergios Athanasoglou

Journal of Mathematical Economics, 2011, vol. 47, issue 2, 180-185

Abstract: Abstract Consider a collection of m indivisible objects to be allocated to n agents, where m>=n. Each agent falls in one of two distinct categories: either he (a) has a complete ordinal ranking over the set of individual objects, or (b) has a set of "plausible" benchmark von Neumann-Morgenstern (vNM) utility functions in whose positive span his "true" utility is known to lie. An allocation is undominated if there does not exist a preference-compatible profile of vNM utilities at which it is Pareto dominated by another feasible allocation. Given an undominated allocation, we use the tools of linear duality theory to construct a profile of vNM utilities at which it is ex-ante welfare maximizing. A finite set of preference-compatible vNM utility profiles is exhibited such that every undominated allocation is ex-ante welfare maximizing with respect to at least one of them. Given an arbitrary allocation, we provide an interpretation of the constructed vNM utilities as subgradients of a function which measures worst-case domination.

Keywords: Random; assignment; Efficiency; Duality; Linear; programming (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Working Paper: Efficiency under a Combination of Ordinal and Cardinal Information on Preferences (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:mateco:v:47:y:2011:i:2:p:180-185

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