On the similarity between ranking vectors in the pairwise comparison method

Abstract

There are many priority deriving methods for pairwise comparison matrices. It is known that when these matrices are consistent all these methods result in the same priority vector. However, when they are inconsistent, the results may vary. The presented work formulates an estimation of the difference between priority vectors in the two most popular ranking methods: the eigenvalue method and the geometric mean method. The estimation provided refers to the inconsistency of the pairwise comparison matrix. Theoretical considerations are accompanied by Montecarlo experiments showing the discrepancy between the values of both methods.