A re-characterization of the Kemeny distance

B. Can, A.J.A. Storcken

Research output: Working paper / PreprintWorking paper

1152 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The well-known swap distance (Kemeny (1959); Kendall (1938); Hamming (1950)) is analyzed.
On weak preferences, this function was characterized by Kemeny (1959) with five conditions;
metric, betweenness, neutrality, reducibility, and normalization. We show that the same result
can be achieved without the reducibility condition, therefore, the original five conditions are
not logically independent. We provide a new and logically independent characterization of the
Kemeny distance and provide some insight to further analyze distance functions on preferences.
Original languageEnglish
Place of PublicationMaastricht
PublisherMaastricht University, Graduate School of Business and Economics
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2013

Publication series

SeriesGSBE Research Memoranda
Number009

Cite this