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Optimal Income Distribution Rules and Representative Consumers

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  • Michael Jerison

Abstract

This paper derives observable properties of economies with optimal income distribution rules that specify consumers' incomes as functions of aggregate income and prices. Optimality implies that the aggregate demand function is generated by a single "representative" consumer, cf. Samuelson (1956). We derive an additional implication which, when consumers receive fixed shares of aggregate income, requires that the consumers' demands become more dispersed when aggregate income rises. This last condition has empirical support. The results relate the representative consumer's preferences to a version of Kaldor's compensation criterion and show when both can be used for normative analysis without internal inconsistency.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Jerison, 1994. "Optimal Income Distribution Rules and Representative Consumers," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 61(4), pages 739-771.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:restud:v:61:y:1994:i:4:p:739-771.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.2307/2297917
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    Cited by:

    1. Emanuela Randon, 2002. "L’analisi positiva dell’esternalità: rassegna della letteratura e nuovi spunti," Working Papers 58, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Jun 2002.
    2. Laurens CHERCHYE & Ian CRAWFORD & Bram DE ROCK & Frederic VERMEULEN, 2011. "Aggregation without the aggravation? Nonparametric analysis of the representative consumer," Working Papers of Department of Economics, Leuven ces11.36, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Department of Economics, Leuven.
    3. Mattei, Aurelio, 2000. "Full-scale real tests of consumer behavior using experimental data," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 487-497, December.
    4. Laurens CHERCHYE & Ian CRAWFORD & Bram DE ROCK & Frederic VERMEULEN, 2013. "Gorman revisited: nonparametric conditions for exact linear aggregation," Working Papers of Department of Economics, Leuven ces13.05, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Department of Economics, Leuven.
    5. Christos Koulovatianos & Carsten Schröder & Ulrich Schmidt, 2010. "Confronting the Representative Consumer with Household-Size Heterogeneity," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1056, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    6. Jerison, Michael, 1999. "Dispersed excess demands, the weak axiom and uniqueness of equilibrium," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 15-48, February.
    7. Sebastiaan Maes & Raghav Malhotra, 2023. "Robust Hicksian Welfare Analysis under Individual Heterogeneity," Papers 2303.01231, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2023.
    8. Jerison, David & Jerison, Michael, 2001. "Real income growth and revealed preference inconsistency," UC3M Working papers. Economics we012902, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía.
    9. Chiuri, Maria Concetta, 2000. "Individual decisions and household demand for consumption and leisure," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 277-324, September.
    10. Maes, Sebastiaan & Malhotra, Raghav, 2024. "Robust Hicksian Welfare Analysis under Individual Heterogeneity," CRETA Online Discussion Paper Series 84, Centre for Research in Economic Theory and its Applications CRETA.
    11. Donni, Olivier & Molina, José Alberto, 2018. "Household Collective Models: Three Decades of Theoretical Contributions and Empirical Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 11915, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Michael Jerison, 2023. "Social welfare and the unrepresentative representative consumer," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 25(1), pages 5-28, February.
    13. Chambers, Christopher P., 2012. "Inequality aversion and risk aversion," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 147(4), pages 1642-1651.
    14. Michael Jerison, 1997. "Nonrepresentative Representative Consumers," Discussion Papers 97-01, University at Albany, SUNY, Department of Economics.
    15. Koulovatianos, Christos & Schröder, Carsten & Schmidt, Ulrich, 2014. "Do demographics prevent consumer aggregates from reflecting micro-level preferences?," CFS Working Paper Series 484, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
    16. Koulovatianos, Christos & Schröder, Carsten & Schmidt, Ulrich, 2019. "Do demographics prevent consumption aggregates from reflecting micro-level preferences?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 166-190.
    17. Maes, Sebastiaan & Malhotra, Raghav, 2024. "Beyond the Mean : Testing Consumer Rationality through Higher Moments of Demand," CRETA Online Discussion Paper Series 85, Centre for Research in Economic Theory and its Applications CRETA.
    18. Michael Jerison, 2001. "Demand Dispersion, Metonymy and Ideal Panel Data," Discussion Papers 01-11, University at Albany, SUNY, Department of Economics.

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