Fair Utilitarianism

Marc Fleurbaey and Stéphane Zuber

American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 2021, vol. 13, issue 2, 370-401

Abstract: Utilitarianism plays a central role in economics, but there is a gap between theory, where utilitarianism is dominant, and applications, where monetary criteria are often used. For applications, a key difficulty is to define how utilities should be measured and compared. Drawing on Harsanyi's (1955) approach, we introduce a new normalization of utilities ensuring that: (i) a transfer from a rich population to a poor population is welfare enhancing, and (ii) populations with more risk-averse people have lower welfare. We study some implications of this "fair utilitarianism" for risk sharing, collective risk aversion, and the design of health policy.

JEL-codes: D63 D81 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Fair Utilitarianism (2021)
Working Paper: Fair Utilitarianism (2021)
Working Paper: Fair Utilitarianism (2021)
Working Paper: Fair Utilitarianism (2017)
Working Paper: Fair Utilitarianism (2017)
Working Paper: Fair Utilitarianism (2017)
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DOI: 10.1257/mic.20170234

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