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Critical Levels and the (Reverse) Repugnant Conclusion

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Author Info
Blackorby, C.
Bossert, W.
Fleurbaey, M.

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Abstract

It is well-known that there is a trade-off regarding the properties of population principles that are used to make social evaluations when the number of people in the society under consideration may vary. The commonly used pricipales either lead to the repugnant conclusion (which is the case for classical utilitarianism), or they violate the pareto plus principle and related properties (average utilitarianis is an example of such a principle). This paper examines the nature of this trade-off and shows that the incompatibility between avoiding the repugnant conclusion and the Pareto plus principle is fundamental and not restricted to the commonly used population principles.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by UBC Department of Economics in its series UBC Departmental Archives with number 97-10.

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Length: 11 pages
Date of creation: 1997
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:ubc:bricol:97-10

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Related research
Keywords: POPULATION ; ETHICS;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General
D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

  1. Blackorby, Charles & Bossert, Walter & Donaldson, David, 1995. "Intertemporal Population Ethics: Critical-Level Utilitarian Principles," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich.
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  2. Blackorby, Charles & Bossert, Walter & Donaldson, David, 1997. "Birth-Date Dependent Population Ethics: Critical-Level Principles," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 77(2), pages 260-284, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Blackorby, Charles & Donaldson, David, 1984. "Social criteria for evaluating population change," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(1-2), pages 13-33, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Ng, Yew-Kwang, 1986. "Social criteria for evaluating population change: An alternative to the Blackorby-Donaldson criterion," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 375-381, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. BLACKORBY, Charles & BOSSERT, Walter & DONALDSON, David, 2003. "Population Ethics and the Value of Life," Cahiers de recherche 2003-07, Universite de Montreal, Departement de sciences economiques. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. BLACKORBY, Charles & BOSSERT, Walter & DONALDSON, David, 2006. "Population Ethics," Cahiers de recherche 2006-15, Universite de Montreal, Departement de sciences economiques. [Downloadable!]
  3. BLACKORBY, Charles & BOSSERT, Walter & DONALDSON, David, 2001. "The Axiomatic Approach to Population Ethics," Cahiers de recherche 2001-06, Universite de Montreal, Departement de sciences economiques. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. BOSSERT, Walter, 2006. "Consistent Relations," Cahiers de recherche 2006-03, Universite de Montreal, Departement de sciences economiques. [Downloadable!]
  5. Ritxar Arlegi & Miguel Angel Ballester & María del Carmen Marco & Jorge Nieto, 2000. "Variable population egalitarian ethics and the critical-level: A note," Documentos de Trabajo - Lan Gaiak Departamento de Economía - Universidad Pública de Navarra 0013, Departamento de Economía - Universidad Pública de Navarra. [Downloadable!]
  6. BLACKORBY, Charles & BOSSERT, Walter & DONALDSON, David, 2002. "Critical-Level Population Principles and the Repugnant Conclusion," Cahiers de recherche 2002-15, Universite de Montreal, Departement de sciences economiques. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. Blackorby, Charles & Bossert, Walter & Donaldson, David, 2000. "Population Principles with Number-Dependent Critical Levels," Working Papers 2000-06, Rice University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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