Price-independent welfare prescriptions and population size

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Blackorby, C; Bossert, W; Donaldson, D
• 署名单位: University of British Columbia; Aix-Marseille Universite; University of Nottingham; University of British Columbia
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0531
• DOI: 10.1006/jeth.1998.2475
• 发表日期: 1999
• 页码: 111-119
• 关键词: price-independent welfarism; population ethics

摘要

This note investigates the extension of Roberts' price-independent welfare prescriptions to alternatives in which population size and composition can vary. We show that ethically unsatisfactory orderings result. Suppose that a single person is to be added to a population that is unaffected in utility terms. Either all such additions must be regarded as bad or some expansions in which the added person's life is not worth living must be ranked as social improvements. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Number: D63. (C) 1999 Academic Press.