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About the Right Weight of the Social Welfare Function when Needs Differ

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Abstract

When equivalence scales are used to compute the well-being of individuals, two possible weighting methods of the different household types have been proposed, the first one resorts to the family size and the second to the equivalence scale itself. The latter is criticized on the ground that it does not respect an anonymity axiom. We show that this criticism vanishes in the standard microeconomic setting.

Suggested Citation

  • Alain Trannoy, 2003. "About the Right Weight of the Social Welfare Function when Needs Differ," IDEP Working Papers 0304, Institut d'economie publique (IDEP), Marseille, France.
  • Handle: RePEc:iep:wpidep:0304
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Ebert, Udo, 1997. "Social Welfare When Needs Differ: An Axiomatic Approach," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 64(254), pages 233-244, May.
    2. Glewwe, Paul, 1991. "Household equivalence scales and the measurement of inequality : Transfers from the poor to the rich could decrease inequality," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 211-216, March.
    3. Bourguignon, Francois, 1989. "Family size and social utility : Income distribution dominance criteria," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 67-80, September.
    4. Anthony B. Atkinson & François Bourguignon, 1987. "Income Distribution and Differences in Needs," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: George R. Feiwel (ed.), Arrow and the Foundations of the Theory of Economic Policy, chapter 12, pages 350-370, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Udo Ebert, 1999. "Using equivalent income of equivalent adults to rank income distributions," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 16(2), pages 233-258.
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    Cited by:

    1. Huiru Zhao & Sen Guo & Qi Zhang & Chunjie Li, 2014. "Social Welfare Evaluation of Electric Universal Service in China: From the Perspective of Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(8), pages 1-17, August.
    2. Billette de Villemeur, Etienne & Leroux, Justin, 2016. "Accounting for Needs in Cost Sharing," MPRA Paper 73434, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Anthony Shorrocks, 2004. "Inequality and welfare evaluation of heterogeneous income distributions," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 2(3), pages 193-218, July.
    4. Udo Ebert, 2008. "Living Standard, Social Welfare, and the Redistribution of Income in a Heterogeneous Population," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 10(5), pages 873-889, October.
    5. Fleurbaey, Marc & Hagneré, Cyrille & Trannoy, Alain, 2014. "Welfare comparisons of income distributions and family size: An individualistic approach," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 12-27.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    social welfare; equivalence scale; weights; anonymity; indirect utility function;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • I3 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty
    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation

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