Benchmarking

Christopher P. Chambers; Alan D. Miller

doi:10.3982/TE2506

Benchmarking

Christopher P. Chambers, Alan D. Miller

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

We investigate a normative theory of incomplete preferences in the context of preliminary screening procedures. We introduce a theory of ranking in the presence of objectively incomparable marginal contributions (apples and oranges). Our theory recommends benchmarking, a method under which an individual is deemed more accomplished than another if and only if she has achieved more benchmarks, or important accomplishments. We show that benchmark rules are characterized by four axioms: transitivity, monotonicity, incomparability of marginal gains, and incomparability of marginal losses.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	485-504
Number of pages	20
Journal	Theoretical Economics
Volume	13
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3982/TE2506
State	Published - May 2018

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Christopher P. Chambers: Christopher.Chambers@georgetown.edu Alan D. Miller: admiller@econ.haifa.ac.il The authors would like to thank the Co-editor and three referees, as well as Peter Sudhölter for pointing out a mistake in an earlier draft of the manuscript, Larry Samuelson, Ella Segev, Matthew Spitzer, and participants at the Ben Gurion University, the University of Illinois, New York University–Abu Dhabi, the University of Manchester, the University of Lausanne, the University of Southern Denmark, the Paris School of Economics, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Hawaii, Korea University, the 2016 North American Summer Meeting of the Econometric Society, the Thirteenth Meeting of the Society for Social Choice and Welfare, and the 28th Stony Brook International Conference on Game Theory for their comments, and the Searle Center on Law, Regulation, and Economic Growth at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law for research support. Christopher Chambers acknowledges support through NSF Grant SES-1426867.

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2018 The Authors.

Keywords

Benchmarking
apples and oranges
axioms
closure operator
homomorphisms
incompleteness
measurement

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Economics, Econometrics and Finance (all)

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10.3982/TE2506

Cite this

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abstract = "We investigate a normative theory of incomplete preferences in the context of preliminary screening procedures. We introduce a theory of ranking in the presence of objectively incomparable marginal contributions (apples and oranges). Our theory recommends benchmarking, a method under which an individual is deemed more accomplished than another if and only if she has achieved more benchmarks, or important accomplishments. We show that benchmark rules are characterized by four axioms: transitivity, monotonicity, incomparability of marginal gains, and incomparability of marginal losses.",

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KW - homomorphisms

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Benchmarking

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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