Notes on the existence of solutions in the pairwise comparisons method using the Heuristic Rating Estimation approach

Abstract: Pairwise comparisons are a well-known method for modelling of the subjective preferences of a decision maker. A popular implementation of the method is based on solving an eigenvalue problem for M - the matrix of pairwise comparisons. This does not take into account the actual values of preference. The Heuristic Rating Estimation (HRE) approach is a modification of this method in which allows modelling of the reference values. To determine the relative order of preferences is to solve a certain linear equation system defined by the matrix A and the constant term vector b (both derived from M). The article explores the properties of these equation systems. In particular, it is proven that for some small data inconsistency the A matrix is an M-matrix, hence the equation proposed by the HRE approach has a unique strictly positive solution.