Do Koopmans’ postulates lead to discounted utilitarianism?
Working paper
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http://hdl.handle.net/11250/162792Utgivelsesdato
2004-12Metadata
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Sammendrag
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.
Utgiver
Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration. Department of EconomicsSerie
Discussion paper2004:32