Multi-attribute decision-making in individual and social choice

This paper provides an analysis of individual and social decision criteria for alternatives that are composed of several attributes. We derive additiv e and multiplicative criteria for individual decision-making with new axiom s and apply these criteria to obtain new justifications of known social cho ice rules with a bargaining interpretation, namely the generalized utilitar ian and Nash social choice functions. Unlike most axiomatizations of bargai ning solutions, our approach is, to a large extent, based on the multi-attr ibute structure of the underlying alternatives and the resulting individual decision criteria instead of axioms that impose restrictions on the choice function directly. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. JEL classification: D81; D71; C78.