A Note on Selecting Maximals in Finite Spaces

Juan Carlos García-Bermejo (juancarlos.gbermejo@uam.es)
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Juan Carlos García-Bermejo: Departamento de Análisis Económico (Teoría e Historia Económica). Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.

No 2012/06, Working Papers in Economic Theory from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain), Department of Economic Analysis (Economic Theory and Economic History)

Abstract: Given a choice problem, the maximization rule may select many alternatives. In such cases, it is common practice to interpret that the final choice will end up being made by some random procedure, assigning to any maximal alternative the same probability of being chosen. However, there may be reasons based on the same original preferences for which it is suitable to select certain maximal alternatives over others. This paper introduces two choice criteria induced by the original preferences such that maximizing with respect to each of them may give a finer selection of alternatives than maximizing with respect to the original preferences. Those criteria are built by means of several preference relations induced by the original preferences, namely, two (weak) dominance relations, two indirect preference relations and the dominance relations defined with the help of those indirect preferences. It is remarkable that as the original preferences approach being complete and transitive, those criteria become both simpler and closer to such preferences. In particular, they coincide with the original preferences when these are complete and transitive, in which case they provide the same solution as those preferences.

Keywords: maximal elements; maximization; acyclical preferences; rational choice; choice function; refinements of maximization rule. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C60 D11 D71 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 16 pages
Date: 2012-02
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