A Contribution to the Theory of Welfare Comparisons

Martin Weitzman

No 6988, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Using only information based on current directly-observable market behavior, the paper shows how to make rigorous dynamic welfare comparisons among economies or economic situations having arbitrarily-different endowments and technologies, but sharing a common dynamic preference ordering. The correct answers to seemingly complicated questions, which intrinsically involve comparing wealth-like measures of dynamic well-being, can be translated isomorphically into a simple-minded story told in the familiar language of old-fashioned static consumer-welfare theory.

Date: 1999-02
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Published as Weitzman, Martin L. "A Contribution To The Theory Of Welfare Accounting," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 2001, v103(1,Mar), 1-23.

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Working Paper: A Contribution to the Theory of Welfare Comparisons (1999)
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