Utilitarianism and discrimination

Alon Harel () and Uzi Segal

Social Choice and Welfare, 2014, vol. 42, issue 2, 367-380

Abstract: Since Becker ( 1971 ), a common argument against asymmetric norms that promote minority rights over those of the majority is that such policies reduce total welfare. While this may be the case, we show that there are simple environments where aggregate sum of individual utilities is actually maximized under asymmetric norms that favor minorities. We thus maintain that without information regarding individual utilities one cannot reject or promote segregation-related policies based on utilitarian arguments. Copyright Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

Date: 2014
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Working Paper: Utilitarianism and Discrimination (2012)
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DOI: 10.1007/s00355-013-0734-2

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