An economics-based rationale for the Rawlsian social welfare program

Oded Stark

No 305675, Discussion Papers from University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF)

Abstract: We show that a social planner who seeks to allocate a given sum in order to reduce efficiently the social stress of a population, as measured by the aggregate relative deprivation of the population, pursues a disbursement procedure that is identical to the procedure adhered to by a Rawlsian social planner who seeks to allocate the same sum in order to maximize the Rawlsian maximin-based social welfare function. Thus, the constrained minimization of aggregate relative deprivation constitutes an economics-based rationale for the philosophy-based constrained maximization of the Rawlsian social welfare function.

Keywords: Food Security and Poverty; Political Economy; Public Economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 9
Date: 2020-10-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hpe
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Chapter: An Economics-Based Rationale for the Rawlsian Social Welfare Program (2020)
Working Paper: An Economics-Based Rationale for the Rawlsian Social Welfare Program (2020)
Working Paper: An economics-based rationale for the Rawlsian social welfare program (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:ubzefd:305675

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.305675

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