Approximate interpersonal comparisons of well-being

Marcus Pivato

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: We propose a mathematical model of `approximate' interpersonal comparisons of well-being, in terms of an incomplete preorder over a space of `psychophysical states'. We argue that this model is consistent with people's intuitions about interpersonal comparisons, intertemporal preferences, and changes in psychological identity over time. We then construct several simple mathematical models to illustrate the versatility of this approach.

Keywords: interpersonal comparisons; utility; well-being; welfare; intertemporal choice; metapreferences; multi-utility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D63 D70 I31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-09-20
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hap
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/25224/1/MPRA_paper_25224.pdf original version (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:25224

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany Ludwigstraße 33, D-80539 Munich, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Joachim Winter ().