Social Multi-Criteria Evaluation for a Sustainable Economy

The real world is characterized by deep complexity. May be a rather unremarkable observation, yet it has important implications on the manner policy problems are represented and decision-making is framed. Is contemporary democracy compatible with science in real-world policy-making? This book gives answers in the affirmative. It also asserts that this congruence can have positive implications not only in terms of economic prosperity but also when dealing with the difficult sustainability policy problems of our millennium. To address contemporary issues economic science will have to expand its empirical relevance by introducing more and more realistic assumptions to its models. One of the most interesting research orientations in recent times in the field of public economics is the explicit attempt to take account of political constraints, interest groups and collusion effects. One of the main novelties of this book is its establishment of a clear relationship between social and public choice theories on one hand, and multiple criteria decision analysis on the other. The pioneering research developed by Arrow and Raynaud (1986) has shown that the relationships between multi-criteria decision theory and social choice are clear and relevant. The main directions of cross-fertilization between these research fields are twofold: 1. Multi-criteria decision theory can be an adequate framework for applied social (and public) choice. 2. Social choice can produce interesting theoretical results for ensuring the ax- matic consistency needed by multi-criterion aggregation conventions.

Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Klappentext
This work is among the first treatments to account for the complexity of social decisions and sustainability problems by using the methodological framework of multi-criteria decision analysis. The author proposes the new concept of Social Multi-Criteria Evaluation (SMCE) as a policy framework for the analysis of sustainability issues in which concerns for current and future generations have to be considered along with policy imperatives and market constraints. The treatment of technical uncertainty, both stochastic and fuzzy, is also explored in depth. The book is unique in its elaboration of the relationship between social and public choice and multi-criteria decision theory and in its attempt to systemize multi criteria evaluation within economic theory and complex systems analysis.

Inhalt
Methodological Foundations and Operational Consequences of Social Multi-Criteria Evaluation (SMCE).- Dealing with a Complex World: Multiple Dimensions, Values and Scales.- Operationalizing Technical and Social Incommensurability in an SMCE Framework.- Consistency in Social Multi-Criteria Evaluation.- The Issue of Consistency: Basic Methodological Concepts.- The Issue of Consistency: Basic Discrete Multi-Criteria Methods.- The Issue of Consistency: Lessons Learned from Social Choice Literature.- Mathematical Procedures to Search for Technical and Social Compromise Solutions.- Searching for the Technical Compromise Solution: Solving the Discrete Multi-Criterion Problem in an SMCE Framework.- Searching for the Social Compromise Solution: A Conflict Analysis Procedure for Illuminating Distributional Issues.- Conclusions.