Collective decisions under uncertainty: efficiency, ex-ante fairness, and normalization

Leo Kurata () and Kensei Nakamura ()
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Leo Kurata: Graduate School of Economics, Waseda University
Kensei Nakamura: Graduate School of Economics, Hitotsubashi University

Theoretical Economics, Forthcoming

Abstract: This paper studies preference aggregation under uncertainty in the multi-profile framework and characterizes a new class of aggregation rules that can address classical concerns about Harsanyi’s (1955) utilitarian rules. Our aggregation rules, which we call relative fair aggregation rules, are grounded in three key ideas: utilitarianism, egalitarianism, and the 0–1 normalization of individual utilities. These rules are parameterized by a set of weight vectors over individuals and evaluate each ambiguous alternative by taking the minimum weighted sum of 0–1 normalized utility levels over the weight set. For the characterization, we propose two novel axioms, weak preference for mixing and restricted certainty independence, with normative justifications. Additional results clarify how these axioms capture the utilitarian and egalitarian attitudes of the rules.

Keywords: Preference aggregation; uncertainty; fairness; normalization; ex-ante approach (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D71 D81 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-10-27
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