Preference Structures and
Their Numerical Representations
PETER FISHBURN
AT&T Research, Murray Hill, NJ 07974, USA
July 1996

This paper presents a selective survey of numerical representations of preference structures from the perspective of the representational theory of measurement. It reviews historical contributions to ordinal, additive, and expected utility theories, then describes recent contributions in these areas.

Prepared for ORDAL `96, a conference on order and decision-making, Ottawa,
Canada, August 5-9, 1996.

• Introduction
• Preference Representations
  • Ordinal measurement
  • Additive measurement
  • Expected utility
• Cancellation Conditions
• Thresholds
• Decision Under Risk and Uncertainty
• Nontransitive Preferences
• About this document ...