IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/kud/kuiedp/0524.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Capabilities and Equality of Health I

Author

Listed:
  • Hans Keiding

    (Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen)

Abstract

The concept of capabilities, introduced originally by Sen with the aim to provide a better basis for the theory of inequality, has inspired many researchers but has not found any simple formal representation which might be instrumental in the construction of a comprehensive theory of equality. In the present paper, we present a formalization of the concept of capabilities based on Lancasterian characteristics, whereby a functioning of an individual is a method for transforming an initial position to a final outcome. In this context, we investigate whether preferences over capabilities as sets of functionings can be rationalized by maximization of a suitable utility function over the set of functionings. Such a rationalization turns out to be possible only in cases which must be considered exceptional and which do not allow for interesting applications of the capability approach to questions of health or equality. The conclusion which can be obtained from the predominantly negative results is that a formal description of capabilities much involve ideas which go beyond the simple representation as a family of choice sets.

Suggested Citation

  • Hans Keiding, 2005. "Capabilities and Equality of Health I," Discussion Papers 05-24, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:kud:kuiedp:0524
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.econ.ku.dk/english/research/publications/wp/2005/0524.pdf/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    capabilities; characteristics; equality of health;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kud:kuiedp:0524. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Thomas Hoffmann (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/okokudk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.