IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ecm/emetrp/v63y1995i6p1303-20.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Intertemporal Population Ethics: Critical-Level Utilitarian Principles

Author

Listed:
  • Blackorby, Charles
  • Bossert, Walter
  • Donaldson, David

Abstract

This paper considers the problem of social evaluation in a model where population size, individual lifetime utilities, lengths of life, and birth dates vary across states. In an intertemporal framework, the authors investigate principles for social evaluation that allow history to matter to some extent. Using an axiom called independence of the utilities of the dead, they provide a characterization of critical-level generalized utilitarian rules. As a by-product of their analysis, the authors show that social discounting is ruled out in an intertemporal welfarist environment. A simple population-planning example is also discussed. Copyright 1995 by The Econometric Society.

Suggested Citation

  • Blackorby, Charles & Bossert, Walter & Donaldson, David, 1995. "Intertemporal Population Ethics: Critical-Level Utilitarian Principles," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 63(6), pages 1303-1320, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:ecm:emetrp:v:63:y:1995:i:6:p:1303-20
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0012-9682%28199511%2963%3A6%3C1303%3AIPECUP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-D&origin=repec
    File Function: full text
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to JSTOR subscribers. See http://www.jstor.org for details.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    More about this item

    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:ecm:emetrp:v:63:y:1995:i:6:p:1303-20. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/essssea.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.