ANALYSIS OF PROCEDURES IN COLLECTIVE AND MUL TI·CRITERIAL DECISION MAKING F. T. Aleskerov and V. I. Vol 'skiy I 'I , II! III,
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Abstract. Colle c tive and multi-criterial decision making procedures of three types where the resultant de c ision with original "estimates" as a totality of criteria or binary relations is repreaented as a) a criterion or binary relation; b) a choice func tion; and c ) a choice function with the original "eatimates" as a totality of choice functions are stadied. Keywords. Decision theory; graph theory; set theory; optimization; choice function; local operator.
INTRODUCTION Choice of the best variants from a given set is the main stage in decision making. In actual situations the variants c an be plans of sectoral development, design options, nominees for off ices, sites of future factories, etc. Whenever the varisnts are estimated in terms of a set of indices or these "estimates" are made by a collective of individuals the "private estimatea" have to be aggregated into "overall preference". The problems of aggregating individual "opinions" (represented, as a rule, as binary relations) are referr9d to as problems of collective choice and the problem of aggregating criterial estimates as problema of multi-criterial choice. Three types of procedures may be regarded as aggregation procedures. The first type maps a totality of criterial estimates {If,(X.j into an "integral" estimate ffi (X.) (such are widely known procedures of criterion convolution) or a totality of binary relations {G-i.} into a resultant relation ~~ (such procedures are treated in the theory of collective choice where the relations (;, are associated with preference relations of individuals and the relation &~ , with the overall collective "preference"). In procedures of the second type the totality of relations {Gd or of a criterion totality {!fi(X)} are mapped into the resultant choice function C ~ (X) , which makes it possible to indicate "preferable" variants on each subset X of the entire set A of admissible variants. This mapping is performed, for instance, by the Pareto choice rule with criterial estimates i(Ji(X),i.= 1., ..., n. I lJC3-J
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Using choice fun c tions for theoretical description of decision making set is justified by the following important fact. }'irst, numerous actual decision making procedures can be described in terms of the properties of choice functions in a unified way, these properties making possible a plain meaningful interpretation; second, the analysis of these properties makes it possible to develop new types of procedures which can be employed in actual problems. Finally, procedures of the third type maps totality of choice functions {C.(·n into a resulting function C*(·). Such procedures have not been studied until very recently (Grether snd Plott, 1982). Let us study all the three types with the following initial notation and concepts: A ={ x •.... , Am 1, m) 2 , - is a finite set of all admissible variants; I ={ 1• ... , 11.), 11. > j , is a set of indices (individuals in the problem of c ollective choice or criteria in the problem of multi-criterial choice. Every subs cript t from I is associated with some binary relation G, = ({XI ~n
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