A Group Preference Axiomatization with Cardinal Utility

Ralph L. Keeney
Additional contact information
Ralph L. Keeney: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria

Management Science, 1976, vol. 23, issue 2, 140-145

Abstract: Given a group composed of N individuals and given that each has rated all of the alternatives using a cardinal utility function, the problem is to aggregate these to obtain a group cardinal utility function for evaluating each alternative. The cardinal utilities indicate the strength of preference of one alternative relative to others as well as order the alternatives. Five assumptions, which seem reasonable for the aggregation, are postulated, and it is shown the group cardinal utility function which is implied must be a linear combination of the individual cardinal utility functions. For assessing such a function, interpersonal comparisons of preferences are required. Suggestions for who should make these comparisons and how they might be done are given.

Date: 1976
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (33)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.23.2.140 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:23:y:1976:i:2:p:140-145

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Management Science from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().