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Arrovian Aggregation of Convex Preferences

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  • Florian Brandl
  • Felix Brandt

Abstract

We consider social welfare functions that satisfy Arrow's classic axioms of independence of irrelevant alternatives and Pareto optimality when the outcome space is the convex hull of some finite set of alternatives. Individual and collective preferences are assumed to be continuous and convex, which guarantees the existence of maximal elements and the consistency of choice functions that return these elements, even without insisting on transitivity. We provide characterizations of both the domains of preferences and the social welfare functions that allow for anonymous Arrovian aggregation. The domains admit arbitrary preferences over alternatives, which completely determine an agent's preferences over all mixed outcomes. On these domains, Arrow's impossibility turns into a complete characterization of a unique social welfare function, which can be readily applied in settings involving divisible resources such as probability, time, or money.

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  • Florian Brandl & Felix Brandt, 2020. "Arrovian Aggregation of Convex Preferences," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(2), pages 799-844, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:emetrp:v:88:y:2020:i:2:p:799-844
    DOI: 10.3982/ECTA15749
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    Cited by:

    1. Brandl, Florian & Brandt, Felix, 2024. "A natural adaptive process for collective decision-making," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 19(2), May.
    2. Forrest Jeffrey Yi-Lin & Tiglioglu Tufan & Liu Yong & Mong Donald & Cardin Marta, 2023. "Various Convexities and Some Relevant Properties of Consumer Preference Relations," Studia Universitatis „Vasile Goldis” Arad – Economics Series, Sciendo, vol. 33(4), pages 145-168, December.
    3. Florian Brandl & Felix Brandt & Christian Stricker, 2022. "An analytical and experimental comparison of maximal lottery schemes," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 58(1), pages 5-38, January.
    4. Florian Brandl & Felix Brandt, 2021. "A Natural Adaptive Process for Collective Decision-Making," Papers 2103.14351, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2024.
    5. Brandt, Felix & Lederer, Patrick & Suksompong, Warut, 2023. "Incentives in social decision schemes with pairwise comparison preferences," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 266-291.
    6. Eden, Maya, 2020. "Aggregating Welfare Gains," CEPR Discussion Papers 14783, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

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