Integer Programming and Arrovian Social Welfare Functions

Source abstract

We characterize the class of Arrovian Social Welfare Functions (ASWFs) as integer solutions to a collection of linear inequalities. Many of the classical possibility, impossibility, and characterization results can be derived in a simple and unified way from this integer program. Among the new results we derive is a characterization of preference domains that admit a nondictatorial, neutral ASWF. We also give a polyhedral characterization of all ASWFs on single-peaked domains.