Quarterly Journal of Economics Vol. 107 No. 2 1992
On Diversity
Abstract
An oft-repeated goal in many contexts is the "preservation of diversity." But what is the diversity function to be optimized? This paper shows how a reasonable measure of the "value of diversity" of a collection of objects can be recursively generated from more fundamental information about the dissimilarity-distance between any pair of objects in the set. The diversity function is shown to satisfy a basic dynamic programming equation, which in a well-defined sense generates an optimal classification scheme. A surprisingly rich theory of diversity emerges, having ramifications for several disciplines. Implications and applications are discussed.
- DOI
- 10.2307/2118476
- Volume
- 107
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 363-405
- Language
- en
- Sources
- openalex crossref