Discussion of Suzumura’s Paper

Kevin Roberts

A chapter in Social Choice Re-Examined, 1996, pp 230-236 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract In his admirable survey of the use and usefulness of interpersonal comparisons in social choice theory, the basic question that Suzumura wishes to address is: ‘How and to what extent can interpersonal welfare comparisons of the extended sympathy type help us resolve the sweeping verdicts of the Arrow possibility theorems?’ Prompted by his analysis, I wish to address the question by looking at the structure of interpersonal comparisons. Suzumura concentrates for the most part on ‘ordinal’ comparisons and I start by looking at the appeal of ‘ordinal’ over ‘cardinal’ comparisons. Then I turn to the question of the existence of ‘objective’ interpersonal comparisons underlying what Suzumura terms ‘subjective’ interpersonal comparisons and I look at the main question posed by Suzumura.

Keywords: Social Choice; Social Ranking; Social Choice Theory; Utility Difference; Interpersonal Comparison (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1996
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:intecp:978-1-349-25214-5_16

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DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-25214-5_16

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