It is possible to build families of parametrised CUFs able to induce a continuous collection of social welfare orderings, including most of those defined above.
The other family of CUFs is a particular case of what is known as ordered weighted averaging (OWA) operators [99].
Let us consider the vector w such that [w.sub.i] = 0 for all i [not equal to] k and [w.sub.k] = 1, then we have exactly the k-rank dictator CUF (including the egalitarian and the elitist CUFs, which are special cases of rank dictators).
A collective utility function (CUF) is a mapping from such vectors to numerical values (e.g.
The utilitarian CUF is independent of the zeros of individual utilities.
This CUF offers a level of fairness and may be a suitable performance indicator when we have to satisfy the minimum needs of a large number of customers.
Another interesting aspect of this CUF is that it is independent of the individual scales of agent utility functions.
Work status patterns for the average Clothing, Utilities, Food, and Services shares of
CUFS expenditures are qualitatively the same irrespective of low or high income family groups.