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Welfare Egalitarianism with Other-Regarding Preferences

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We study the fair allocation of a one-dimensional and perfectly divisible good when individuals have other-regarding preferences. Assuming no legitimate claims and purely ordinal preferences, how should society measure social welfare so as to satisfy basic principles of efficiency and fairness? We define the egalitarian equivalent as the size of the egalitarian allocation which leaves the individual indifferent to the current allocation. In two simple models of average and positional externalities, we characterize the class of social preferences which give full priority to the individual with the lowest egalitarian equivalent in the economy.

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  • Treibich, Rafael, 2014. "Welfare Egalitarianism with Other-Regarding Preferences," Discussion Papers on Economics 22/2014, University of Southern Denmark, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:sdueko:2014_022
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    2. Olivier Bargain & Maria Lo Bue & Francesco Palmisano, 2022. "Dynastic Measures of Intergenerational Mobility," Working Papers hal-03896551, HAL.
    3. Aitor Calo-Blanco, 2022. "Fairness and unequal productive skills among other-regarding individuals," Working Papers 22.06, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics.
    4. Fleurbaey, Marc & Zuber, Stéphane, 2017. "Fair management of social risk," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 666-706.
    5. Aitor Calo-Blanco, 2017. "Health and fairness with other-regarding preferences," Working Papers 17.04, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics.
    6. Aitor Calo-Blanco, 2020. "Health and fairness with other-regarding preferences," Review of Economic Design, Springer;Society for Economic Design, vol. 24(3), pages 123-141, December.
    7. Martin Linden, 2018. "Egalitarianism with a dash of fair efficiency," Economic Theory Bulletin, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 6(2), pages 219-238, October.
    8. Flaviana Palmisano, 2024. "Compassion and envy in distributional comparisons," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 96(1), pages 153-184, February.
    9. Benoit Decerf & Martin Linden, 2016. "Fair social orderings with other-regarding preferences," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 46(3), pages 655-694, March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Fair allocation; social welfare; externalities; behavioral economics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers
    • D71 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Social Choice; Clubs; Committees; Associations

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