On the Topological Social Choice Problem

Citation:

Weinberger, Shmuel . “On The Topological Social Choice Problem”. Discussion Papers 2002. Web.

Abstract:

Extending earlier work of Chichilnisky and Heal, we show that any connected space of the homotopy type of a finite complex admitting a continuous symmetric choice function respeting unanimity is contractible for any fixed finite number (>1) of agents. On the other hand, removing the finiteness condition on the homotopy type, we show that there are a number of non-contractible spaces that do admit such choice functions, for any number of agents, and, characterize precisely those spaces.

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