Subgroup independence conditions on preferences

The concept of <Emphasis Type="Bold">n-scale independence is introduced for a preference relation defined on <InlineEquation ID="IEq1"> <EquationSource Format="TEX">$${\mathbb{R}^{n}=\mathbb{R}^{n_{1}}\times \cdots \times \mathbb{R}^{n_{p}}}$$</EquationSource> </InlineEquation>. In addition to zero-independence and upper semicontinuity at zero, <Emphasis Type="Bold">n-scale independence allows us to characterizate linear oligarchies as well as to offer a (semi)continuous welfarist analogue of Wilson’s theorem. We also include a characterization of the class of continuous, <Emphasis Type="Bold">n-separable and <Emphasis Type="Bold">n-scale independent, p ≥ 3, social orderings in terms of what we call homogeneous oligarchies. Copyright Springer-Verlag 2012