The Analytic Hierarchy Process and the Theory of Measurement

Michele Bernasconi (), Christine Choirat () and Raffaello Seri
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Christine Choirat: Department of Quantitative Methods, School of Economics and Business Management, Universidad de Navarra, E-31080 Pamplona, Spain

Management Science, 2010, vol. 56, issue 4, 699-711

Abstract: The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is a decision-making procedure widely used in management for establishing priorities in multicriteria decision problems. Underlying the AHP is the theory of ratio-scale measures developed in psychophysics since the middle of the last century. It is, however, well known that classical ratio-scaling approaches have several problems. We reconsider the AHP in the light of the modern theory of measurement based on the so-called separable representations recently axiomatized in mathematical psychology. We provide various theoretical and empirical results on the extent to which the AHP can be considered a reliable decision-making procedure in terms of the modern theory of subjective measurement.

Keywords: ratio scales; subjective weighting; decision making (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Working Paper: The Analytic Hierarchy Process and the Theory of Measurement (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:56:y:2010:i:4:p:699-711

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