Multicriteria compensability analysis

Passive and Active Compensability Multicriteria ANalysis (PACMAN) is a multicriteria methodology based on a decision maker (DM)-oriented concept of compensation, called compensability. The preliminary stage of PACMAN is compensability analysis. This is the procedure that translates information about intercriteria compensability provided by the DM into analytical form. In this paper, a theoretical modelization of compensability analysis is proposed. Codification of information is carried out by building the so-called compensatory functions for each ordered pair of criteria, distinguishing the compensating or active criterion from the compensated or passive one. Some technical features of these functions are analyzed and a methodology for their construction is presented. On the basis of compensability analysis the compensatory strength of each criterion can be evaluated by computing its active and passive compensatory powers, thus obtaining a partial preorder on the set of criteria. Moreover, this type of approach to intercriteria relations allows one to estimate the DM's global aptitude to compensate among criteria.