Inequality aversion, impartiality and utilitarianism

M Mariotti

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    Egalitarianism presents the problem of baseline-dependence: egalitarianism from where? No collective choice can be egalitarian for all choices of a baseline. So the question arises as to whether and how the egalitarian program can be weakened in order to be compatible with baseline-independence. I characterize the set of choices that satisfy a minimal degree of inequality-aversion, embodied in the generalized Lorenz criterion, independently of the choice of a baseline. It turns out that this set coincides with the Lorenz-Utilitarian set, the set of Utilitarian choices which are not Lorenz dominated for any choice of baseline. Either this set is empty or it coincides with the Utilitarian set (when this is a singleton). Moreover, I also characterize the full Utilitarian set by using a standard requirement of impartiality (the Suppes-Sen criterion).

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)291-304
    Number of pages14
    JournalSocial Choice and Welfare
    Volume22
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Apr 2004

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