Compensating the dead? Yes we can!

Marc Fleurbaey, Marie-Louise Leroux and Gregory Ponthiere

PSE Working Papers from HAL

Abstract: An early death is, undoubtedly, a serious disadvantage. However, the compensation of short-lived individuals has remained so far largely unexplored, probably because it appears infeasible. Indeed, short-lived agents can hardly be identified ex ante, and cannot be compensated ex post. We argue that, despite the above difficulties, a compensation can be carried out by encouraging early consumption in the life cycle. In a model with heterogeneous preferences and longevities, we show how a specific social criterion can be derived from intuitive principles, and we study the corresponding optimal policy under various informational assumptions. We also study the robustness of our solution to alternative types of preferences and savings policies.

Keywords: compensation; longevity; mortality; fairness; redistribution; longévité; mortalité; justice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-10
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00564934v1
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Compensating the dead? Yes we can! (2010)
Working Paper: Compensating the dead? Yes we can! (2010)
Working Paper: Compensating the dead? Yes we can! (2010)
Working Paper: Compensating the Dead? Yes we can! (2010)
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