 Ethically robust comparisons of bidimensional distributions with an ordinal attributePatrick Moyes () and Nicolas Gravel () Post-Print from HAL Abstract: We provide foundations for robust normative evaluation of distributions of two attributes, one of which is cardinally measurable and transferable between individuals and the other is ordinal and non-transferable. The result that we establish takes the form of an analogue to the standard Hardy-Littlewood-Polya theorem for distributions of one cardinal attribute. More specifically, we identify the transformations of the distributions which guarantee that social welfare increases according to utilitarian unanimity provided that the utility function is concave in the cardinal attribute and that its marginal utility with respect to the same attribute is non-increasing in the ordinal attribute. We establish that this unanimity ranking of the distributions is equivalent to the ordered poverty gap quasi-ordering introduced by Bourguignon [12]. Finally, we show that, if one distribution dominates another according to the ordered poverty gap criterion, then the former can be derived from the latter by means of an appropriate and finite sequence of such transformations. Date: 2012 Published in Journal of Economic Theory, 2012, 147 (4), pp.1384-1426. ⟨10.1016/j.jet.2012.01.001⟩ There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it. Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00796050 DOI: 10.1016/j.jet.2012.01.001 Access Statistics for this paper More papers in Post-Print from HAL |
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