On linear combinations of binomial OWA functions

Abstract

We consider the binomial decomposition of ordered weighted averaging (OWA) functions proposed by Calvo and De Baets (1998) in the framework of Choquet integration. Our aim in the paper is to further investigate the equivalence between the two representations of OWA functions involved in the binomial decomposition: the usual canonical representation in terms of the order statistics, and the binomial representation in terms of the binomial OWA functions. We describe and discuss in detail the linear transformations that relate the coefficients of these two equivalent representations: the original expression of the weights in terms of the coefficients of the binomial representation, and its inverse, the expression of those coefficients in terms of the weights. In both cases simple and direct proofs are presented. Moreover, we consider the linear transformations between the two representations in the general linear algebra framework of unconstrained linear combinations of binomial OWA functions. In this perspective we obtain compact matrix expressions for the linear transformations, which also offer new insight on the geometry of the coefficient constraints in the binomial representation of OWA functions.