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Risky social choice with incomplete or noisy interpersonal comparisons of well-being

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  • Marcus Pivato

Abstract

In this study, we develop a model of social choice over lotteries, where people’s psychological characteristics are mutable, their preferences may be incomplete, and incomplete or noisy interpersonal comparisons of well-being are possible. Formally, we suppose individual preferences are described by a von Neumann-Morgenstern (vNM) preference order on a space of lotteries over psychophysical states; the social planner must construct a vNM preference order on lotteries over social states. First, we consider a model where the individual vNM preference order is incomplete (so not all interpersonal comparisons are possible). Then, we consider a model where the individual vNM preference order is complete, but unknown to the planner, and thus modelled by a random variable. In both cases, we obtain characterizations of a utilitarian social welfare function. Copyright Springer-Verlag 2013

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  • Marcus Pivato, 2013. "Risky social choice with incomplete or noisy interpersonal comparisons of well-being," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 40(1), pages 123-139, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:sochwe:v:40:y:2013:i:1:p:123-139
    DOI: 10.1007/s00355-011-0590-x
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    10. Marcus Pivato, 2015. "Social choice with approximate interpersonal comparison of welfare gains," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 79(2), pages 181-216, September.
    11. Pivato, Marcus, 2013. "Social welfare with incomplete ordinal interpersonal comparisons," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(5), pages 405-417.
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    Cited by:

    1. McCarthy, David & Mikkola, Kalle & Thomas, Teruji, 2020. "Utilitarianism with and without expected utility," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 77-113.
    2. Eric Danan & Thibault Gajdos & Jean-Marc Tallon, 2015. "Harsanyi's Aggregation Theorem with Incomplete Preferences," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(1), pages 61-69, February.
    3. Marcus Pivato, 2015. "Social choice with approximate interpersonal comparison of welfare gains," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 79(2), pages 181-216, September.
    4. McCarthy, David & Mikkola, Kalle & Thomas, Teruji, 2016. "Utilitarianism with and without expected utility," MPRA Paper 72578, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Pivato, Marcus, 2013. "Social welfare with incomplete ordinal interpersonal comparisons," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(5), pages 405-417.
    6. Pivato, Marcus, 2013. "Multiutility representations for incomplete difference preorders," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 196-220.
    7. David McCarthy & Kalle Mikkola & Teruji Thomas, 2019. "Aggregation for potentially infinite populations without continuity or completeness," Papers 1911.00872, arXiv.org.

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