IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/matsoc/v66y2013i3p196-220.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Multiutility representations for incomplete difference preorders

Author

Listed:
  • Pivato, Marcus

Abstract

A difference preorder is a (possibly incomplete) preorder on a space of state changes (rather than the states themselves); it encodes information about preference intensity, in addition to ordinal preferences. We find necessary and sufficient conditions for a difference preorder to be representable by a family of cardinal utility functions which take values in linearly ordered abelian groups. We also discuss the sense in which this cardinal utility representation is unique up to affine transformations, and under what conditions it is real-valued. This has applications to interpersonal comparisons, social welfare, and decisions under uncertainty.

Suggested Citation

  • Pivato, Marcus, 2013. "Multiutility representations for incomplete difference preorders," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 196-220.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:matsoc:v:66:y:2013:i:3:p:196-220
    DOI: 10.1016/j.mathsocsci.2013.05.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165489613000498
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.mathsocsci.2013.05.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Herbert Moskowitz & Paul V. Preckel & Aynang Yang, 1993. "Decision Analysis with Incomplete Utility and Probability Information," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 41(5), pages 864-879, October.
    2. Dubra, Juan & Maccheroni, Fabio & Ok, Efe A., 2004. "Expected utility theory without the completeness axiom," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 118-133, March.
    3. Marcus Pivato, 2014. "Additive representation of separable preferences over infinite products," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 77(1), pages 31-83, June.
    4. Luca Rigotti & Chris Shannon, 2005. "Uncertainty and Risk in Financial Markets," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 73(1), pages 203-243, January.
    5. Tyson, Christopher J., 2008. "Cognitive constraints, contraction consistency, and the satisficing criterion," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 138(1), pages 51-70, January.
    6. Patrick Suppes & Muriel Winet, 1955. "An Axiomatization of Utility Based on the Notion of Utility Differences," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 1(3-4), pages 259-270, 04-07.
    7. Marcus Pivato, 2013. "Risky social choice with incomplete or noisy interpersonal comparisons of well-being," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 40(1), pages 123-139, January.
    8. Matthew Rabin, 1998. "Psychology and Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 36(1), pages 11-46, March.
    9. Paolo Ghirardato & Fabio Maccheroni & Massimo Marinacci & Marciano Siniscalchi, 2003. "A Subjective Spin on Roulette Wheels," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(6), pages 1897-1908, November.
    10. YIlmaz, Özgür, 2008. "Utility representation of lower separable preferences," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 389-394, November.
    11. Vicki Knoblauch, 2006. "Continuously Representable Paretian Quasi-Orders," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 60(1), pages 1-16, February.
    12. Michael Mandler, 2006. "Cardinality versus Ordinality: A Suggested Compromise," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(4), pages 1114-1136, September.
    13. Mandler, Michael, 2005. "Incomplete preferences and rational intransitivity of choice," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 255-277, February.
    14. Juan Dubra & Fabio Maccheroni & Efe A. Ok, 2004. "Expected Utility Without the Completeness Axiom," Yale School of Management Working Papers ysm404, Yale School of Management.
    15. Ok, Efe A., 2002. "Utility Representation of an Incomplete Preference Relation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 104(2), pages 429-449, June.
    16. Efe A. Ok & Pietro Ortoleva & Gil Riella, 2012. "Incomplete Preferences Under Uncertainty: Indecisiveness in Beliefs versus Tastes," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 80(4), pages 1791-1808, July.
    17. Baucells, Manel & Shapley, Lloyd S., 2008. "Multiperson utility," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 329-347, March.
    18. Sprumont, Yves, 2001. "Paretian Quasi-orders: The Regular Two-Agent Case," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 101(2), pages 437-456, December.
    19. Kaminski, B., 2007. "On quasi-orderings and multi-objective functions," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 177(3), pages 1591-1598, March.
    20. Galaabaatar, Tsogbadral & Karni, Edi, 2012. "Expected multi-utility representations," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 64(3), pages 242-246.
    21. Özgür Evren, 2008. "On the existence of expected multi-utility representations," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 35(3), pages 575-592, June.
    22. Marcus Pivato, 2015. "Social choice with approximate interpersonal comparison of welfare gains," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 79(2), pages 181-216, September.
    23. Tsogbadral Galaabaatar & Edi Karni, 2013. "Subjective Expected Utility With Incomplete Preferences," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 81(1), pages 255-284, January.
    24. Kaushik Basu, 1982. "Determinateness of the Utility Function: Revisiting a Controversy of the Thirties," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 49(2), pages 307-311.
    25. Tyson, Christopher J., 2008. "Cognitive constraints, contraction consistency, and the satisficing criterion," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 138(1), pages 51-70, January.
    26. Veronika Köbberling, 2006. "Strength of preference and cardinal utility," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 27(2), pages 375-391, January.
    27. Evren, Özgür & Ok, Efe A., 2011. "On the multi-utility representation of preference relations," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(4-5), pages 554-563.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bosi, Gianni & Herden, Gerhard, 2016. "On continuous multi-utility representations of semi-closed and closed preorders," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 20-29.
    2. McCarthy, David & Mikkola, Kalle & Thomas, Teruji, 2021. "Expected utility theory on mixture spaces without the completeness axiom," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    3. Marcus Pivato, 2020. "Subjective expected utility with a spectral state space," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 69(2), pages 249-313, March.
    4. Marcus Pivato, 2015. "Social choice with approximate interpersonal comparison of welfare gains," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 79(2), pages 181-216, September.
    5. Bosi, Gianni & Herden, Gerhard, 2014. "Topological spaces for which every closed and semi-closed preorder respectively admits a continuous multi-utility representation," MPRA Paper 53404, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Evren, Özgür, 2014. "Scalarization methods and expected multi-utility representations," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 30-63.
    2. McCarthy, David & Mikkola, Kalle & Thomas, Teruji, 2021. "Expected utility theory on mixture spaces without the completeness axiom," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    3. Özgür Evren, 2012. "Scalarization Methods and Expected Multi-Utility Representations," Working Papers w0174, Center for Economic and Financial Research (CEFIR).
    4. David McCarthy & Kalle Mikkola & Teruji Thomas, 2019. "Aggregation for potentially infinite populations without continuity or completeness," Papers 1911.00872, arXiv.org.
    5. Eric Danan & Thibault Gajdos & Jean-Marc Tallon, 2015. "Harsanyi's Aggregation Theorem with Incomplete Preferences," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(1), pages 61-69, February.
    6. Cosimo Munari, 2020. "Multi-utility representations of incomplete preferences induced by set-valued risk measures," Papers 2009.04151, arXiv.org.
    7. Marcus Pivato, 2020. "Subjective expected utility with a spectral state space," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 69(2), pages 249-313, March.
    8. Pivato, Marcus, 2009. "Social choice with approximate interpersonal comparisons of well-being," MPRA Paper 17060, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Eric Danan, 2010. "Randomization vs. Selection: How to Choose in the Absence of Preference?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(3), pages 503-518, March.
    10. McCarthy, David & Mikkola, Kalle, 2018. "Continuity and completeness of strongly independent preorders," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 141-145.
    11. Cosimo Munari, 2021. "Multi-utility representations of incomplete preferences induced by set-valued risk measures," Finance and Stochastics, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 77-99, January.
    12. Giarlotta, Alfio & Greco, Salvatore, 2013. "Necessary and possible preference structures," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 163-172.
    13. McCarthy, David & Mikkola, Kalle & Thomas, Teruji, 2017. "Representation of strongly independent preorders by sets of scalar-valued functions," MPRA Paper 79284, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. McCarthy, David & Mikkola, Kalle & Thomas, Teruji, 2020. "Utilitarianism with and without expected utility," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 77-113.
    15. D. Borie, 2016. "Lexicographic expected utility without completeness," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 81(2), pages 167-176, August.
    16. Weixuan Xia, 2023. "Optimal Consumption--Investment Problems under Time-Varying Incomplete Preferences," Papers 2312.00266, arXiv.org.
    17. McCarthy, David & Mikkola, Kalle & Thomas, Teruji, 2016. "Utilitarianism with and without expected utility," MPRA Paper 72578, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Minardi, Stefania & Savochkin, Andrei, 2015. "Preferences with grades of indecisiveness," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 300-331.
    19. Leandro Nascimento, 2011. "Remarks on the consumer problem under incomplete preferences," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 70(1), pages 95-110, January.
    20. Simone Cerreia-Vioglio & Alfio Giarlotta & Salvatore Greco & Fabio Maccheroni & Massimo Marinacci, 2020. "Rational preference and rationalizable choice," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 69(1), pages 61-105, February.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:matsoc:v:66:y:2013:i:3:p:196-220. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505565 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.