On Reconciling Conflicting Goals: Applications of Multiobjective Programming

This paper examines the problem of identifying cost-effective solutions to problems characterized by multiple objectives. The traditional approach has been to minimize costs subject to feasibility constraints and a set of targets. This is compared with a multiobjective programming approach which treats the objectives as choice variables and cost as a parameter. To illustrate the two approaches, the problem of achieving environmental objectives is analyzed. The comparison reveals that the traditional cost-minimizing approach can generate solutions which are inefficient, in the sense that greater emission reductions could have been attained at the same cost. Because the solution sets to the two problems may differ, conditions are derived under which the two approaches yield a similar set of results.