社会选择理论研究综述

社会选择理论作为现代经济学的重要发展成果之一,主要是分析个人偏好和集体选择之间的关系,研究可以对不同的社会状态进行公正的排序或以其他方式加以评价的方法,如投票就是一种重要的社会选择方式,以调和个人价值与集体价值的冲突.该理论不仅适用于政治等公共领域,也适用于文化、体育等社会活动中的选优与排名,对于提高社会决策效率和增进社会福利水平具有重要价值.但该理论并未得到国内学术界尤其是经济学界应有的重视.因此,通过对国内学术界近十年来在该领域的研究状况进行分析,有助于了解现状并推进该领域的深入研究.

A Survey of Studies on Social Choice Theory

Social choice theory is one of the important achievements of economics in the recent years.The theory focuses on the relation between individual preference and collective choice and the methods to fairly estimate different social situations,such as voting,with the aim to resolve conflicts between individual and collective values.The theory can be used in the field of politics and others,including culture and sports.Along with the process of market economy transformation in China,conflicts between individual and collective values are inevitable.Obviously,a set of efficient social choice rules are necessary for us to enhance the efficiency of social policy decision and improve social welfare.We need a survey of studies on the social choice theory in China to further study the theory.However,the Chinese academic circle has not paid full attention to the social choice theory and the knowledge of it is fairly limited.From 1989 to 2004,only 35 papers on this theory were published in the Chinese academic circle and scholars from subjects other than economics contributed half of them.But this also shows that the theory has gradually drawn the attention of more researchers.Most of the research achievements in China are in the field of function algorithm and the demonstration of assumption.It is obvious that scholars of mathematics and management have made much more contribution to it than economists.According to the context,we conclude that the social choice theory is not only an important part of economics but also an inter-disciplinary subject of economics,mathematics and management.With an increasing number of researchers from other fields joining in the research,rapid progress can be expected.