Does AHP help us make a choice? - An experimental evaluation

Alessio Ishizaka, Dieter Balkenborg and Todd Kaplan

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: In this paper, we use experimental economics methods to test how well Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) fares as a choice support system in a real decision problem. AHP provides a ranking that we statistically compare with three additional rankings given by the subjects in the experiment: one at the beginning, one after providing AHP with the necessary pair-wise comparisons and one after learning the ranking provided by AHP. While the rankings vary widely across subjects, we observe that for each individual all four rankings are similar. Hence, subjects are consistent and AHP is, for the most part, able to replicate their rankings. Furthermore, while the rankings are similar, we do find that the AHP ranking helps the decision-makers reformulate their choices by taking into account suggestions made by AHP.

Keywords: Decision analysis; Multiple Criteria Decision Aid; Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C44 C9 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-08-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Does AHP help us make a choice? An experimental evaluation (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:24213

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