Aggregation of Monotonic Bernoullian Archimedean Preferences: Arrovian Impossibility Results
16 Pages Posted: 20 Oct 2013
Date Written: September 20, 2013
Abstract
Cerreia-Vioglio, Ghirardato, Maccheroni, Marinacci and Siniscalchi (Economic Theory, 48:341--375, 2011) have recently proposed a very general axiomatisation of preferences in the presence of ambiguity, viz. Monotonic Bernoullian Archimedean (MBA) preference orderings. This paper investigates the problem of Arrovian aggregation of such preferences -- and proves dictatorial impossibility results for both finite and infinite populations. Applications for the special case of aggregating expected-utility preferences are given. A novel proof methodology for special aggregation problems, based on model theory (in the sense of mathematical logic), is employed.
Keywords: ambiguity, Knightian uncertainty, expected utility, Monotonic Bernoullian Archimedean (MBA) preferences, Arrovian social choice, Arrow's theorem, impossibility result, ultrafilter, ultraproduct
JEL Classification: D71, D81, C02
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation