IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ordeca/v2y2005i4p185-206.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Attribute Dominance Utility

Author

Listed:
  • Ali E. Abbas

    (School of Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 117 Transportation Building, MC-238, 104 South Mathews Avenue, Urbana, Illinois 61801)

  • Ronald A. Howard

    (Department of Management Science and Engineering, School of Engineering, Stanford University, Terman Engineering Center 700-420, Stanford, California 94305-4026)

Abstract

We present an analogy between joint cumulative probability distributions and a class of multiattribute utility functions, which we call attribute dominance utility functions. Attribute dominance utility functions permit assessing multiattribute utility functions using common techniques of joint probability assessment such as marginal-conditional assessments and the method of copulas. By itself, this class of utility functions appears in many cases of decision analysis practice. Furthermore, we show that many functional forms of multiattribute utility function can be decomposed into attribute dominance utility functions that are easier to elicit. We introduce the notion of utility inference analogous to Bayes’ rule for probability inference and provide a graphic representation of attribute dominance utility functions, which we call utility diagrams.

Suggested Citation

  • Ali E. Abbas & Ronald A. Howard, 2005. "Attribute Dominance Utility," Decision Analysis, INFORMS, vol. 2(4), pages 185-206, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ordeca:v:2:y:2005:i:4:p:185-206
    DOI: 10.1287/deca.1050.0046
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/deca.1050.0046
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/deca.1050.0046?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James S. Dyer & Rakesh K. Sarin, 1982. "Relative Risk Aversion," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(8), pages 875-886, August.
    2. Charles M. Harvey, 1993. "Multiattribute Risk Linearity," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(3), pages 389-394, March.
    3. Peter C. Fishburn & Peter H. Farquhar, 1982. "Finite-Degree Utility Independence," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 7(3), pages 348-353, August.
    4. David E. Bell, 1977. "A Utility Function for Time Streams Having Inter-Period Dependencies," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 25(3), pages 448-458, June.
    5. Craig W. Kirkwood, 1976. "Parametrically Dependent Preferences for Multiattributed Consequences," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 24(1), pages 92-103, February.
    6. Ralph L. Keeney, 1981. "Analysis of Preference Dependencies among Objectives," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(6), pages 1105-1120, December.
    7. David E. Bell, 1979. "Consistent Assessment Procedures Using Conditional Utility Functions," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 27(5), pages 1054-1066, October.
    8. James S. Dyer & Peter C. Fishburn & Ralph E. Steuer & Jyrki Wallenius & Stanley Zionts, 1992. "Multiple Criteria Decision Making, Multiattribute Utility Theory: The Next Ten Years," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 38(5), pages 645-654, May.
    9. Ralph L. Keeney, 1974. "Multiplicative Utility Functions," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 22(1), pages 22-34, February.
    10. Peter H. Farquhar, 1975. "A Fractional Hypercube Decomposition Theorem for Multiattribute Utility Functions," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 23(5), pages 941-967, October.
    11. Robert T. Clemen & Terence Reilly, 1999. "Correlations and Copulas for Decision and Risk Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 45(2), pages 208-224, February.
    12. Ali E. Abbas, 2006. "Maximum Entropy Utility," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 54(2), pages 277-290, April.
    13. David E. Bell, 1979. "Multiattribute Utility Functions: Decompositions Using Interpolation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(8), pages 744-753, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Ali E. Abbas, 2009. "Multiattribute Utility Copulas," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 57(6), pages 1367-1383, December.
    2. Jiehua Xie & Zhengyong Zhou, 2022. "Patchwork Constructions of Multiattribute Utility Functions," Decision Analysis, INFORMS, vol. 19(2), pages 141-169, June.
    3. Ali E. Abbas & Zhengwei Sun, 2015. "Multiattribute Utility Functions Satisfying Mutual Preferential Independence," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 63(2), pages 378-393, April.
    4. Ali E. Abbas & Zhengwei Sun, 2019. "Archimedean Utility Copulas with Polynomial Generating Functions," Decision Analysis, INFORMS, vol. 16(3), pages 218-237, September.
    5. Ali E. Abbas, 2013. "Utility Copula Functions Matching All Boundary Assessments," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 61(2), pages 359-371, April.
    6. Corrente, Salvatore & Greco, Salvatore & Ishizaka, Alessio, 2016. "Combining analytical hierarchy process and Choquet integral within non-additive robust ordinal regression," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 2-18.
    7. Abdildin, Yerkin G. & Abbas, Ali E., 2016. "Analysis of decision alternatives of the deep borehole filter restoration problem," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 1306-1321.
    8. L. Robin Keller & Jay Simon, 2019. "Preference Functions for Spatial Risk Analysis," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 39(1), pages 244-256, January.
    9. Andrea C. Hupman & Jay Simon, 2023. "The Legacy of Peter Fishburn: Foundational Work and Lasting Impact," Decision Analysis, INFORMS, vol. 20(1), pages 1-15, March.
    10. Ying He & James S. Dyer & John C. Butler, 2014. "Decomposing a Utility Function Based on Discrete Distribution Independence," Decision Analysis, INFORMS, vol. 11(4), pages 233-249, December.
    11. Johannes G. Jaspersen & Gilberto Montibeller, 2015. "Probability Elicitation Under Severe Time Pressure: A Rank‐Based Method," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(7), pages 1317-1335, July.
    12. Ali E. Abbas, 2011. "The Multiattribute Utility Tree," Decision Analysis, INFORMS, vol. 8(3), pages 180-205, September.
    13. Meral Özomay, 2023. "Sustainable and Environmental Dyeing with MAUT Method Comparative Selection of the Dyeing Recipe," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-14, February.
    14. Hauser, John R. & Urban, Glen L., 1975. "A normative methodology for modeling consumer response to innovation," Working papers 785-75., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    15. He, Ying & Huang, Rui-Hua, 2008. "Risk attributes theory: Decision making under risk," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 186(1), pages 243-260, April.
    16. Ali E. Abbas & David E. Bell, 2015. "Ordinal One-Switch Utility Functions," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 63(6), pages 1411-1419, December.
    17. Schuwirth, N. & Reichert, P. & Lienert, J., 2012. "Methodological aspects of multi-criteria decision analysis for policy support: A case study on pharmaceutical removal from hospital wastewater," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 220(2), pages 472-483.
    18. Ali E. Abbas & David E. Bell, 2011. "One-Switch Independence for Multiattribute Utility Functions," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 59(3), pages 764-771, June.
    19. Samuel Kotz & Johan René van Dorp, 2010. "Generalized Diagonal Band Copulas with Two-Sided Generating Densities," Decision Analysis, INFORMS, vol. 7(2), pages 196-214, June.
    20. William B. Haskell & J. George Shanthikumar & Z. Max Shen, 2017. "Aspects of optimization with stochastic dominance," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 253(1), pages 247-273, June.

    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:inm:ordeca:v:2:y:2005:i:4:p:185-206. 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: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    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.