Impossibility Theorems For Social Welfare Functionals
11 Pages Posted: 23 May 2017 Last revised: 11 Dec 2018
Date Written: December 10, 2018
Abstract
In this paper we provide Impossibility Theorems for social welfare functionals. We adapt the method of proving the inevitability of dictatorial Bergson-Samuelson social welfare functions for fixed utility profiles developed in a paper by Robert P. Parks in 1976. With a little more from results already available in the literature we are able to prove impossibility under conditions on the admissible set which are milder than the ones existing in the literature.
Keywords: social welfare functional, strong neutrality, weakly dictatorial, lexicographically dictatorial, binary independence of irrelevant alternatives, Pareto criterion, attainability, rich admissible sets.
JEL Classification: D71
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation