5,715 research outputs found
Learning aggregation weights from 3-tuple comparison sets
An important task in multiple-criteria decision making is how to learn the weights and parameters of an aggregation function from empirical data. We consider this in the context of quantifying ecological diversity, where such data is to be obtained as a set of pairwise comparisons specifying that one community should be considered more diverse than another. A problem that arises is how to collect a sufficient amount of data for reliable model determination without overloading individuals with the number of comparisons they need to make. After providing an algorithm for determining criteria weights and an overall ranking from such information, we then investigate the improvement in accuracy if ranked 3-tuples are supplied instead of pairs. We found that aggregation models could be determined accurately from significantly fewer 3-tuple comparisons than pairs. © 2013 IEEE
Generalized distribution based diversity measurement: Survey and unification
Social and natural sciences employ a number of different measures of diversity. The presents paper surveys those depending on the distribution of abundances among a given set of categories. Characteristic properties of the measures are generalized and a unifying notation is derived. It is argued that such unification enables scientists and decision makers to measure distribution based diversity in a new, more flexible manner, and represents a useful complement to models of generalized feature based diversity, such as Nehring and Puppeâs (2002) theory of diversity.Diversity measurement; Generalization; Nonâadditivity; Concavity; Numbers equivalence
Methodological Developments in Human Development Literature
The present paper is a review of methodological advancements in human development literature starting from 1990 till date. While highlighting the contribution of UNDP to the concept of human development and construction of HDI it mentions that the introduced concept and method of measurement is a huge qualitative improvement over the earlier concept of growth and per capita GDP measurement. Although the human development report started with a poor methodology, thanks to the galaxy of scholars for their untiring efforts and invaluable contributions in the successive years that enabled UNDP in refining its methodology to a large extent. There is no denying fact that there is no end to refinements, the purpose for which Mahbub ul Haq struggled in his entire life has been served
Do the opportunity costs of providing crop diversity differ between organic and conventional farms? The case of Finnish agriculture
The attractiveness of targeted environmental policies on farmlands depends crucially on the
opportunity costs of the conservation programs. We use a crop diversity index as an indicator of
environmental output to compare the efficiency of conventional and organic crop farms. Technical
efficiency scores are estimated by applying data envelopment analysis to a sample of Finnish farms
for the period 1994 â 2002. We also estimate shadow values, or the opportunity costs, of producing
crop diversity. Our results show that there is variation in the shadow values between farms and the
technology adopted. The findings provide a basis for designing cost-effective policy instruments
such as auctions for conservation payments
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