Weighted Utilitarianism over Finite Streams

22 Pages Posted: 5 Jun 2018 Last revised: 4 Oct 2018

See all articles by Tapan Mitra

Tapan Mitra

Cornell University - Department of Economics

Kemal Ozbek

University of Southampton

Date Written: September 26, 2018

Abstract

We provide an axiomatic analysis of weighted utilitarianism from which many available characterizations follow. We show that a social preference order over finite utility streams has a weak weighted utilitarian representation if it satisfies the axioms of Weak Pareto, Minimal Individual Symmetry, and Shift Invariance. This result can be strengthened to yield a strong (that is, complete) weighted utilitarian representation if and only if it satisfies the above three basic axioms, and an axiom on the “continuity of indifference”. Unlike many available characterizations, our result directly constructs the social welfare weights (used in the above weighted utilitarian representation results) from the preference order. Moreover, the welfare weights are uniquely identified allowing for comparative statics analysis. We show with an example that the three basic axioms do not guarantee a representation (and therefore a weighted utilitarian representation) of the preference order.

Keywords: Weak Pareto, Minimal Individual Symmetry, Shift Invariance, Weak Weighted Utilitarian Representation, Continuity of Indifference, Weighted Utilitarian Representation, Non-Representability Example.

JEL Classification: C60, D01.

Suggested Citation

Mitra, Tapan and Ozbek, Kemal, Weighted Utilitarianism over Finite Streams (September 26, 2018). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3180977 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3180977

Tapan Mitra

Cornell University - Department of Economics ( email )

414 Uris Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853-7601
United States
607-255-6283 (Phone)

Kemal Ozbek (Contact Author)

University of Southampton ( email )

University Rd.
Southampton SO17 1BJ, Hampshire SO17 1LP
United Kingdom

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