D11 - Consumer Economics: TheoryReturn

Nowadays, consumers can find basic information about a wide range of offers with almost no effort. For example, Internet sites give information about second-hand cars regarding the mark, age, price, engine type/size and distance travelled. This information suffices to assess whether a car is potentially attractive, but is not sufficient to make a final decision. The authors have developed an automatic procedure for selecting a shortlist of offers that aims to maximize a weighted average of the attractiveness and diversity of the offers on the shortlist. The consumer determines the number of offers to be placed on the shortlist and the relative importance of the traits considered. The authors have compared the results obtained by applying two methods of multicriteria assessment.