Choice-based Measures of Conflict in Preferences

By: Katherine Baldiga and Jerry R. Green

Format:Print
| Language:English

Abstract

We propose a family of measures of difference between ordinal preference relations. The difference between two preferences is the probability that they would disagree about the optimal choice from a random available set. It is in this sense that these measures are choice-based. Measures differ according to the distribution of the random available sets. We use these measures to propose new social choice rules that achieve maximal average assent among the members of the population. We also propose two further applications of these measures. The first is to welfare measurement when choice is irrational. The second is to the measurement of polarization in a population.