Other-Regarding Preferences in General Equilibrium

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Dufwenberg, Martin; Heidhues, Paul; Kirchsteiger, Georg; Riedel, Frank; Sobel, Joel
• 署名单位: University of Arizona; University of Gothenburg; European School of Management & Technology; Universite Libre de Bruxelles; Universite Libre de Bruxelles; University of Bielefeld; University of California System; University of California San Diego
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMIC STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6527
• DOI: 10.1093/restud/rdq026
• 发表日期: 2011
• 页码: 613-639
• 关键词: theorem; COMPETITION; ECONOMICS; fairness; core

摘要

We study competitive market outcomes in economies where agents have other-regarding preferences (ORPs). We identify a separability condition on monotone preferences that is necessary and sufficient for one's own demand to be independent of the allocations and characteristics of other agents in the economy. Given separability, it is impossible to identify ORPs from market behaviour: agents behave as if they had classical preferences that depend only on own consumption in competitive equilibrium. If preferences, in addition, depend only on the final allocation of consumption in society, the Second Welfare Theorem holds as long as any increase in resources can be distributed in a way that makes all agents better off. The First Welfare Theorem generally does not hold. Allowing agents to care about their own consumption and the distribution of consumption possibilities in the economy, the competitive equilibria are efficient given prices if and only if there is no Pareto-improving redistribution of income.