Interpersonal comparisons of well-being: Increasing convergence

Jelle de Boer

Politics, Philosophy & Economics, 2024, vol. 23, issue 4, 321-345

Abstract: The main question of this paper is how people may agree in their interpersonal comparisons of wellbeing. These comparisons are important in social ethics and for policy purposes. The paper firstly examines grounds for convergence in easy cases. Then comes a more difficult case of low convergence in order to explore a way to increase it. For this, concepts from the empirical subjective well-being literature are used: life satisfaction and vignettes. Ideas of John Harsanyi and Serge Kolm thereby receive a new look.

Keywords: interpersonal comparisons of wellbeing; interpersonal comparisons of welfare; interpersonal comparisons of utility; wellbeing; life satisfaction; vignettes; Harsanyi (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:pophec:v:23:y:2024:i:4:p:321-345

DOI: 10.1177/1470594X241232339

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