Efficiency first or equity first? Two principles and rationality of social choice

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Tadenuma, K
• 署名单位: Hitotsubashi University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0531
• DOI: 10.1006/jeth.2001.2844
• 发表日期: 2002
• 页码: 462-472
• 关键词: Efficiency; equity; No-envy; social preference relation

摘要

This paper formalizes two different principles to socially rank allocations under efficiency-equity trade off. The efficiency-first social preference relation ranks an allocation x higher than an allocation y if and only if (i) x is Pareto-superior to y or (ii) x and y are Pareto-noncomparable and x is equity-superior to y. The equity-first social preference relation reverses the order of application of the two criteria, We show that the efficiency-first relation may have a cycle, whereas the equity-first relation is transitive. We also characterize and compare the sets of maximal elements for these social preference relations in the Edgeworth box and examine the nonemptiness of the sets. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science (USA).