On Preference, Freedom and Diversity

The original publication is available at www.springerlink.comWe study the problem of ranking sets of options in terms of freedom of choice.We propose a framework in which both the diversity of the options and the preferences of the agent over the options do play a role.We formulate some axioms that reflect these two aspects of freedom and we study their logical implications. Two different criteria for ranking sets are characterized, which generalize some of the rankings proposed so far in the literature.Vito Peragine acknowledges financial support from BEC-2001-1653 and the MIUR, Italy (research project on “The Analysis and Measurement of Freedom”). Romero-Medina acknowledges financial support fromMEC SEJ 2005-06167/ECON and Comunidad de Madrid project 06/HSE/0174/2004.Publicad

Measuring autonomy freedom

In the measurement of autonomy freedom, the admissible potential preference relations are elicited by means of the concept of ‘reasonableness’. In this paper we argue for an alternative criterion based on information about the decision maker’s ‘awareness’ of his available opportunities. We argue that such an inter- pretation of autonomy fares better than that based on reasonableness. We then introduce some axioms that capture this intuition and study their logical impli- cations. In the process, a new measure of autonomy freedom is characterized, which generalizes some of the measures so far constructed in the literature

Little and Bergson on Arrow's concept of social welfare

Welfare judgment, Aggregation procedure, Individual values, Social welfare function, D71,