Solution approaches for equitable multiobjective integer programming problems

Abstract

We consider multi-objective optimization problems where the decision maker (DM) has equity concerns. We assume that the preference model of the DM satisfies properties related to inequity-aversion, hence we focus on finding nondominated solutions in line with the properties of inequity-averse preferences, namely the equitably nondominated solutions. We discuss two algorithms for finding good subsets of equitably nondominated solutions. The first approach is an extension of an interactive approach developed for finding the most preferred nondominated solution when the utility function is assumed to be quasiconcave. We find the most preferred equitably nondominated solution when the utility function is assumed to be symmetric quasiconcave. In the second approach we generate an evenly distributed subset of the set of equitably nondominated solutions to be considered further by the DM. We show the computational feasibility of the two algorithms on equitable multi-objective knapsack problem, in which projects in different categories are to be funded subject to a limited budget. We perform experiments to show and discuss the performances of the algorithms. © 2020, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.