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Utilitarianism Is Implied by Social and Individual Dominance

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  • Gustafsson, Johan E.

    (University of Texas at Austin)

  • Spears, Dean

    (University of Texas at Austin)

  • Zuber, Stéphane

    (Paris School of Economics)

Abstract

The expectation of a sum of utilities is a core criterion for evaluating policies and social welfare under variable population and social risk. Our contribution is to show that a previously unrecognized combination of weak assumptions yields general versions of this criterion, both in fixed-population and in variable-population settings. We show that two dimensions of weak dominance (over risk and individuals) characterize a social welfare function with two dimensions of additive separability. So social expected utility emerges merely from social statewise dominance (given other axioms). Moreover, additive utilitarianism, in the variable- population setting, arises from a new, weak form of individual stochastic dominance with two attractive properties: It only applies to lives certain to exist (so it does not compare life against non-existence), and it avoids prominent egalitarian objections to utilitarianism by only applying if certain correlations are preserved. Our result provides a foundation for evaluating climate change, growth, and depopulation.

Suggested Citation

  • Gustafsson, Johan E. & Spears, Dean & Zuber, Stéphane, 2023. "Utilitarianism Is Implied by Social and Individual Dominance," IZA Discussion Papers 16561, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
  • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16561
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    social risk; variable population; utilitarianism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty

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