Foundations of Utilitarianism under Risk and Variable Population

Dean Spears () and Stéphane Zuber
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Dean Spears: University of Texas at Austin

No 14515, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

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: expected critical-level generalized utilitarianism; utilitarianism; population ethics; social risk; prioritarianism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D63 D81 J10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 47 pages
Date: 2021-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cwa and nep-upt
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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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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