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Journal of Logic and Computation 2002 12(1):13-53; doi:10.1093/logcom/12.1.13
© 2002 by Oxford University Press
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Original Article

Operators and Laws for Combining Preference Relations

Hajnal Andréka1, Mark Ryan2 and Pierre-Yves Schobbens3

1 Mathematical Institute, Hungarian Academy of Science, Budapest Pf. 127 H-1364, Hungary. E-mail: andreka{at}math-inst.hu 2 School of Computer Science, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. E-mail: mdr{at}cs.bham.ac.uk 3 Institut d'Informatique, Facultés Universitaires de Namur, Rue Grandgagnage 21, 5000 Namur, Belgium. E-mail: pys{at}info.fundp.ac.be

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).

• We show in what circumstances the lexicographic rule propagates various conditions on preference relations, thus extending Grosof's results.

• We give necessary and sufficient conditions on the priority relation to determine various relationships between combinations of preferences.

• We give an algebraic treatment of this form of generalized prioritization. Two operators, called but and on the other hand, are sufficient to express any prioritization. We present a complete equational axiomatization of these two operators.

These results can be applied in the theory of social choice (a branch of economics), in non-monotonic reasoning (a branch of artificial intelligence), and more generally wherever relations have to be combined.

Keywords: Preference relations; priority relations; default reasoning; lexicographic combination; Arrows theorem; social choice

Received 19 October 1998.


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