Resolving distributional conflicts between generations

Abstract

We describe a new approach to the problem of resolving distributional conflicts between an infinite and countable number of generations. We impose conditions on the social preferences that capture the following idea: If indifference or preference holds between truncated paths for infinitely many truncating times, then indifference or preference holds also between the untruncated infinite paths. In this framework we show (1) how such conditions illustrate the problem of combining Strong Pareto and impartiality in an intergenerational setting, and (2) how equity conditions well-known from the finite setting can be used to characterize different versions of leximin and utilitarianism.