INTERPERSONAL COMPARISONS OF WELL-BEING

Charles Blackorby () and Walter Bossert ()

The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) from University of Warwick, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper, which is to be published as a chapter in the Oxford Handbook of Political Economy, provides an introduction to social-choice theory with interpersonal comparisons of well-being. We argue that the most promising route of escape from the negative conclusion of Arrow’s theorem is to use a richer informational environment than ordinal measurability and the absence of interpersonal comparability of well-being. We discuss welfarist social evaluation (which requires that the levels of individual well-being in two alternatives are the only determinants of their social ranking) and present characterizations of some important social-evaluation orderings. Journal of Economic Literature

Keywords: Arrow’s theorem; social choice with interpersonal utility comparisons; welfarism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
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Related works:
Working Paper: Interpersonal Comparisons of Well-Being (2004)
Working Paper: Interpersonal Comparisons of Well-Being (2004)
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wrk:warwec:711

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