A concern about low relative income, and the alignment of utilitarianism with egalitarianism

Oded Stark, Martyna Kobus and Marcin Jakubek

No 21, University of Tübingen Working Papers in Business and Economics from University of Tuebingen, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, School of Business and Economics

Abstract: A utilitarian social planner who maximizes social welfare assigns the available income to those who are most efficient in converting income into utility. However, when individuals are concerned about their income falling behind the incomes of others, the optimal income distribution under utilitarianism is equality of incomes.

Keywords: utilitarianism; income equality; social welfare maximization; relative income (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H0 I0 I30 I31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Related works:
Journal Article: A concern about low relative income, and the alignment of utilitarianism with egalitarianism (2012)
Working Paper: A concern about low relative income, and the alignment of utilitarianism with egalitarianism (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:tuewef:21

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