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Utilitarianism or welfarism: does it make a difference?

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  • Nicolas Gravel
  • Patrick Moyes

Abstract

We show that it is possible to reconcile the utilitarian and welfarist principles under the requirement of unanimity provided that the set of profiles over which the consensus is attained is rich enough. More precisely, we identify a closedness condition which, if satisfied by a class of n-tuples of utility functions, guarantees that the rankings of social states induced by utilitarian and welfarist unanimities over that class are identical. We illustrate the importance of the result for the measurement of unidimensional as well as multidimensional inequalities from a dominance point of view. Copyright Springer-Verlag 2013

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  • Nicolas Gravel & Patrick Moyes, 2013. "Utilitarianism or welfarism: does it make a difference?," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 40(2), pages 529-551, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:sochwe:v:40:y:2013:i:2:p:529-551
    DOI: 10.1007/s00355-011-0617-3
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    Cited by:

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    2. Andrea Gallice, 2019. "Bankruptcy problems with reference-dependent preferences," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 48(1), pages 311-336, March.
    3. Mathieu Faure & Nicolas Gravel, 2021. "Reducing Inequalities Among Unequals," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 62(1), pages 357-404, February.
    4. Xiang Zhou & Samma Faiz Rasool & Jing Yang & Muhammad Zaheer Asghar, 2021. "Exploring the Relationship between Despotic Leadership and Job Satisfaction: The Role of Self Efficacy and Leader–Member Exchange," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-20, May.
    5. Karsu, Özlem & Morton, Alec & Argyris, Nikos, 2018. "Capturing preferences for inequality aversion in decision support," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 264(2), pages 686-706.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty

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