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Inequality aversion and separability in social risk evaluation

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  • FLEURBAEY, Marc

    (CERSES, Université Paris Descartes & CNRS, France and Université catholique de Louvain, CORE, B- 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium)

  • ZUBER, Stéphane

    (CERSES, Université Paris Descartes & CNRS, France and Université catholique de Louvain, CORE, B- 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium)

Abstract

This paper examines how to satisfy a separability condition related to “independence of the utilities of the dead” (Blackorby et al., 1995; Bommier and Zuber, 2008) in the class of “expected equally distributed equivalent” social orderings (Fleurbaey, 2010). It also inquires into the possibility to keep some aversion to inequality in this context. It is shown that the social welfare function must either be utilitarian or take a special multiplicative form. The multiplicative form is compatible with any degree of inequality aversion, but only under some constraints on the range of individual utilities.

Suggested Citation

  • FLEURBAEY, Marc & ZUBER, Stéphane, 2011. "Inequality aversion and separability in social risk evaluation," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2011023, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    • Handle: RePEc:cor:louvco:2011023
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    Cited by:

    1. Loïc Berger & Johannes Emmerling, 2020. "Welfare As Equity Equivalents," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(4), pages 727-752, September.
    2. Piacquadio, Paolo G., 2020. "The ethics of intergenerational risk," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    3. Fleurbaey, Marc & Zuber, Stéphane, 2015. "Discounting, beyond utilitarianism," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 9, pages 1-52.
    4. Johannes Emmerling, 2018. "Sharing Of Climate Risks Across World Regions," Climate Change Economics (CCE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 9(03), pages 1-19, August.
    5. GABSZEWICZ, Jean & TAROLA, Ornella, 2011. "Migration, wage differentials and fiscal competition," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2011065, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    6. Berger, Loïc & Emmerling, Johannes, 2017. "Welfare as Simple(x) Equity Equivalents," MITP: Mitigation, Innovation and Transformation Pathways 254044, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    7. Al-Najjar, Nabil I. & Pomatto, Luciano, 2020. "Aggregate risk and the Pareto principle," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    8. Kerstin Mitterbacher & Stefan Palan & Jürgen Fleiß, 2021. "Labor market choices of migrants and redistributive policies," Working Paper Series, Social and Economic Sciences 2021-02, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Karl-Franzens-University Graz.
    9. Kaname Miyagishima, 2022. "Efficiency, equity, and social rationality under uncertainty," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 73(1), pages 237-255, February.
    10. Miyagishima, Kaname, 2019. "Fair criteria for social decisions under uncertainty," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 77-87.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    risk; ex post equity; independence of the utilities of the dead;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • D71 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Social Choice; Clubs; Committees; Associations
    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty

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