k-intolerant capacities and Choquet integrals

We define an aggregation function to be (at most) k-intolerant if it is bounded from above by its kth lowest input value. Applying this definition to the discrete Choquet integral and its underlying capacity, we introduce the concept of k-intolerant capacities which, when varying k from 1 to n, cover all the possible capacities on n objects. Just as the concepts of k-additive capacities and p-symmetric capacities have been previously introduced essentially to overcome the problem of computational complexity of capacities, k-intolerant capacities are proposed here for the same purpose but also for dealing with intolerant or tolerant behaviors of aggregation. We also introduce axiomatically indices to appraise the extent to which a given capacity is k-intolerant and we apply them on a particular recruiting problem. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.