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Acyclicity

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The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics

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Abstract

Acyclicity is a consistency property of preferences and other binary relations. It requires that the asymmetric part P of the relation (e.g. the subrelation of strict preference) contain no cycles; that is, for no sequence of alternatives x 1, x 2, …, x n is it true that x 1 Px 2, x 2 Px 3,…,x n−1 Px n , and x n Px 1. The study of cyclic preferences dates at least to Condorcet’s (1785) treatment of the paradox of voting, in which transitive individual voters generate cyclic majority preferences.

This chapter was originally published in The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, 1st edition, 1987. Edited by John Eatwell, Murray Milgate and Peter Newman

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References

  • Arrow, K. 1951. Social choice and individual values. New York: Wiley.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. http://link.springer.com/referencework/10.1007/978-1-349-95121-5

    Douglas Blair

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  1. Douglas Blair
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin Department of Economics, Madison, USA

    Steven Durlauf

  2. Cornell University , ITHACA, New York, USA

    Lawrence E. Blume

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© 1987 The Author(s)

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Blair, D. (1987). Acyclicity. In: Durlauf, S., Blume, L. (eds) The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_193-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_193-1

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95121-5

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