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Measuring well-being and lives worth living

Author

Listed:
  • Marc Fleurbaey

    (Paris School of Economics, CNRS)

  • Gregory Ponthiere

    (UCLouvain)

Abstract

We study the measurement of well-being when individuals have heterogeneous preferences, including different conceptions of a life worth living. When individuals differ in the conception of a life worth living, the equivalent income can regard an individual whose life is not worth living as being better off than an individual whose life is worth living. In order to avoid this paradoxical result, we reexamine the ethical foundations of well-being measures in such a way as to take into account heterogeneity in the conception of a life worth living. We derive, from simple axioms, an alternative measure of well-being, which is an equivalent income net of the income threshold making lifetime neutral. That new well-being index always ranks an individual whose life is not worth living as worse-off than an individual with a life worth living.

Suggested Citation

  • Marc Fleurbaey & Gregory Ponthiere, 2023. "Measuring well-being and lives worth living," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 75(4), pages 1247-1266, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:joecth:v:75:y:2023:i:4:d:10.1007_s00199-022-01446-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s00199-022-01446-0
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Koen Decancq & Marc Fleurbaey & Erik Schokkaert, 2017. "Wellbeing Inequality and Preference Heterogeneity," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 84(334), pages 210-238, April.
    2. Gregory Ponthiere, 2016. "The contribution of improved joint survival conditions to living standards: an equivalent consumption approach," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 46(2), pages 407-449, February.
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    9. Harun Onder & Pierre Pestieau & Grégory Ponthière, 2019. "Equivalent income versus equivalent lifetime: does the metric matter?," Working Papers halshs-02187803, HAL.
    10. Fleurbaey, Marc & Ponthiere, Gregory, 2013. "Prevention against equality?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 68-84.
    11. Koen Decancq & Erik Schokkaert, 2016. "Beyond GDP: Using Equivalent Incomes to Measure Well-Being in Europe," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 126(1), pages 21-55, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Pierre Pestieau & Gregory Ponthiere, 2022. "Optimal lockdown and social welfare," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(1), pages 241-268, January.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Well-being; Measurement; Equivalent income; Lifetime; Value of life;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • J17 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Value of Life; Foregone Income

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