Implementation of Social Welfare Functions

Donald E Campbell

International Economic Review, 1992, vol. 33, issue 3, 525-33

Abstract: A social welfare function f assigns to each economic environment p a continuous preorder f(p) on the space of allocations of private goods. f is implementable if for each large finite set Z the correspondence Phi (p) defined by selecting the set of f(p)-maximal allocations in Z is implementable. Then fis implementable only if it satisfies Arrow's independence axiom. Therefore, every implementable social welfare function is constant or dictatorial or inversely dictatorial. If f(p) is merely quasitransitive and f satisfies a basic nonimposition condition then f is oligarchical if it is implementable. Copyright 1992 by Economics Department of the University of Pennsylvania and the Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association.

Date: 1992
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