Operators and Laws for Combining Preference Relations

摘要

The paper is a theoretical study of a generalization of the lexicographic rule for combining ordering relations. We define the concept of priority operator: a priority operator maps a family of relations to a single relation which represents their lexicographic combination according to a certain priority on the family of relations. We present four kinds of results. We show that the lexicographic rule is the only way of combining preference relations which satisfies natural Conditions (similar to those proposed by Arrow).