Foundations of utilitarianism under risk and variable population

Dean Spears () and Stéphane Zuber
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Dean Spears: University of Texas at Austin [Austin], Indian Statistical Institute [New Delhi], IZA - Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit - Institute of Labor Economics, IFFS - Institute for Futures Studies

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Abstract: Utilitarianism is the most prominent family of social welfare functions. We present three new axiomatic characterizations of utilitarian (that is, additively separable) social welfare functions in a setting where there is risk over both population size and the welfares of individuals. First, we show that, given uncontroversial basic axioms, Blackorby et al.'s (1998) Expected Critical-Level Generalized Utilitarianism (ECLGU) is equivalent to a new axiom holding that it is better to allocate higher utility-conditional-on-existence to possible people who have a higher probability of existence. The other two novel characterizations extend classic axiomatizations of utilitarianism from settings with either social risk or variable-population, considered alone. By considering both social risk and variable population together, we clarify the fundamental normative considerations underlying utilitarian policy evaluation.

Keywords: Social risk; population ethics; utilitarianism; expected critical-level generalized utilitarianism; prioritarianism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cwa, nep-isf and nep-upt
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-03287583v1
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Published in 2021

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Related works:
Journal Article: Foundations of utilitarianism under risk and variable population (2023)
Working Paper: Foundations of utilitarianism under risk and variable population (2022)
Working Paper: Foundations of utilitarianism under risk and variable population (2022)
Working Paper: Foundations of utilitarianism under risk and variable population (2022)
Working Paper: Foundations of utilitarianism under risk and variable population (2021)
Working Paper: Foundations of Utilitarianism under Risk and Variable Population (2021)
Working Paper: Foundations of utilitatianism under risk and variable population (2021)
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