Monotone Equimeasurable Rearrangements with Non-Additive Probabilities

Abstract:     
In the classical theory of monotone equimeasurable rearrangements of functions, “equimeasurability” (i.e. the fact the two functions have the same distribution) is defined relative to a given additive probability measure. These rearrangement tools have been successfully used in many problems in economic theory dealing with uncertainty where the monotonicity of a solution is desired. However, in all of these problems, uncertainty refers to the classical Bayesian understanding of the term, where the idea of ambiguity is absent. Arguably, Knighitan uncertainty, or ambiguity is one of the cornerstones of modern decision theory. It is hence natural to seek an extension of these classical tools of equimeasurable rearrangements to situations of ambiguity. This paper introduces the idea of a monotone equimeasurable rearrangement in the context of non-additive probabilities, or capacities that satisfy a property that I call strong nonatomicity. The latter is a strengthening of the notion of nonatomicity, and these two properties coincide for additive measures and for submodular (i.e. concave) capacities. To illustrate the usefulness of these tools in economic theory, I consider an application to a problem arising in the theory of production under uncertainty.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 29

Keywords: Ambiguity, Capacity, Non-Additive Probability, Choquet Integral, Monotone Equimeasurable Rearrangement, Production under Uncertainty

JEL Classification: C2, C65, D24, D89

working papers series