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Social Choice And Just Institutions: New Perspectives

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  • FLEURBAEY, MARC

Abstract

It has become accepted that social choice is impossible in the absence of interpersonal comparisons of well-being. This view is challenged here. Arrow obtained an impossibility theorem only by making unreasonable demands on social choice functions. With reasonable requirements, one can get very attractive possibilities and derive social preferences on the basis of non-comparable individual preferences. This new approach makes it possible to design optimal second-best institutions inspired by principles of fairness, while traditionally the analysis of optimal second-best institutions was thought to require interpersonal comparisons of well-being. In particular, this approach turns out to be especially suitable for the application of recent philosophical theories of justice formulated in terms of fairness, such as equality of resources.

Suggested Citation

  • Fleurbaey, Marc, 2007. "Social Choice And Just Institutions: New Perspectives," Economics and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(1), pages 15-43, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:ecnphi:v:23:y:2007:i:01:p:15-43_00
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    Cited by:

    1. BOSSERT, Walter & WEYMARK, J.A., 2006. "Social Choice: Recent Developments," Cahiers de recherche 01-2006, Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en économie quantitative, CIREQ.
    2. Fabien Candau & Marc Fleurbaey, 2011. "Agglomeration and Welfare with Heterogeneous Preferences," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 685-708, September.
    3. Clément, Valérie & Moureau, Nathalie & Vidal, Marion, 2009. "À la recherche des biens sous tutelle," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 85(4), pages 383-401, décembre.
    4. John Roemer, 2011. "Marc Fleurbaey, Fairness, responsibility, and welfare," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 9(1), pages 129-135, March.
    5. Fabien Candau, 2008. "Entrepreneurs' Location Choice And Public Policies: A Survey Of The New Economic Geography," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(5), pages 909-952, December.
    6. Ben Wempe & Jeff Frooman, 2018. "Reframing the Moral Limits of Markets Debate: Social Domains, Values, Allocation Methods," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(1), pages 1-15, November.

    More about this item

    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

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