Unequal uncertainties and uncertain inequalities: an axiomatic approach

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Gajdos, T; Maurin, E
• 署名单位: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Institut Polytechnique de Paris; ENSAE Paris; Institut Polytechnique de Paris; ENSAE Paris
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0531
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jet.2003.07.008
• 发表日期: 2004
• 页码: 93-118
• 关键词: inequality; uncertainty; multiple priors

摘要

In this paper, we provide an axiomatic characterization of social welfare functions for uncertain incomes. Our most general result is that a small number of reasonable assumptions regarding welfare orderings under uncertainty rule out pure ex ante as well as pure ex post evaluations. Any social welfare function that satisfies these axioms should lie strictly between the ex ante and the ex post evaluations of income distributions. We also provide an axiomatic characterization of the weighted average of the minimum and the maximum of ex post and ex ante evaluations. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.