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Sufficientarianism

Author

Listed:
  • Alcantud, José Carlos R.

    (Facultad de Economía y Empresa, University of Salamanca)

  • Mariotti, Marco

    (School of Economics and Finance, Queen Mary University of London)

  • Veneziani, Roberto

    (School of Economics and Finance, Queen Mary University of London)

Abstract

Sufficientarianism is a prominent approach to distributive justice in political philosophy and in policy analyses. However, it is virtually absent from the formal normative economics literature. We analyse sufficientarianism axiomatically in the context of the allocation of 0-1 normalised well-being in society. We present three characterisations of the core sufficientarian criterion, which counts the number of agents who attain a “good enough” level of well-being. The main characterisation captures the “hybrid” nature of the criterion, which embodies at the same time a threshold around which the worst off in society is prioritised, and an indifference to equality in other regions. The other two characterisations relate sufficientarianism, respectively, to a liberal principle of non-interference and to a classic Neutrality property.

Suggested Citation

  • Alcantud, José Carlos R. & Mariotti, Marco & Veneziani, Roberto, 2022. "Sufficientarianism," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 17(4), November.
    • Handle: RePEc:the:publsh:4232
    as

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    File URL: http://econtheory.org/ojs/index.php/te/article/viewFile/20221529/35299/1032
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    Other versions of this item:

    • José Carlos R. Alcantud & Marco Mariotti & Roberto Veneziani, "undated". "Sufficientarianism," Working Papers 900, Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. José Alcantud, 2013. "Liberal approaches to ranking infinite utility streams: when can we avoid interference?," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 41(2), pages 381-396, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Opportunities; chances of success; sufficientarianism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • D70 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - General

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