Do Koopmans’ postulates lead to discounted utilitarianism?

Abstract

In this paper we consider variations of Koopmans’ (1960) postulates and demonstrate that these lead to a class of social preferences that is wider than discounted utilitarianism. We formulate a utilitiarian condition (PFL), and introduce a one-sided equity condition (HEF) stating that a sacrifice of the present generation leading to an equal gain for all future generations is weakly desirable if the present remains better off than the future. We investigate the consequences of imposing HEF, and obtain a new axiomatization of discounted utilitarianism by assuming that PFL holds and HEF does not hold.