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Foundations of Utilitarianism under Risk and Variable Population

Author

Listed:
  • Spears, Dean

    (University of Texas at Austin)

  • Zuber, Stéphane

    (Paris School of Economics)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Spears, Dean & Zuber, Stéphane, 2021. "Foundations of Utilitarianism under Risk and Variable Population," IZA Discussion Papers 14515, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14515
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Charles Shaw & Silvio Vanadia, 2022. "Utilitarianism on the front lines: COVID-19, public ethics, and the "hidden assumption" problem," Papers 2205.01957, arXiv.org.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    expected critical-level generalized utilitarianism; utilitarianism; population ethics; social risk; prioritarianism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • J10 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - General

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