Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T08:26:55.121Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

SOCIAL CHOICE AND JUST INSTITUTIONS: NEW PERSPECTIVES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2007

MARC FLEURBAEY
MARC FLEURBAEY*
Affiliation:
CNRS-CERSES, Paris, and IDEP
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

It has become accepted that social choice is impossible in the absence of interpersonal comparisons of well-being. This view is challenged here. Arrow obtained an impossibility theorem only by making unreasonable demands on social choice functions. With reasonable requirements, one can get very attractive possibilities and derive social preferences on the basis of non-comparable individual preferences. This new approach makes it possible to design optimal second-best institutions inspired by principles of fairness, while traditionally the analysis of optimal second-best institutions was thought to require interpersonal comparisons of well-being. In particular, this approach turns out to be especially suitable for the application of recent philosophical theories of justice formulated in terms of fairness, such as equality of resources.

Type
Essay
Information
Economics & Philosophy , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , March 2007 , pp. 15 - 43
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Arrow, K. J. 1951. Social choice and individual values. Yale University PressGoogle Scholar
d'Aspremont, C. and Gevers, L. 1977. Equity and the informational basis of collective choice. Review of Economic Studies 44: 199–209CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chauduri, A. 1986, Some implications of an intensity measure of envy. Social Choice and Welfare 3: 255–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, G. C. 2000. If you're an egalitarian, how come you're so rich? Harvard University PressGoogle Scholar
Dworkin, R. 1981. What is equality? Part 2: Equality of resources. Philosophy & Public Affairs 10: 283–345Google Scholar
Dworkin, R. 2000. Sovereign virtue:. The theory and practice of equality. Harvard University PressGoogle Scholar
Fleurbaey, M. 1998. Equality among responsible individuals. In Laslier, J. F., Fleurbaey, M., Gravel, N. and Trannoy, A. (eds.), Freedom in economics. RoutledgeGoogle Scholar
Fleurbaey, M. 2002. Equality of resources revisited. Ethics 113: 82–105CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleurbaey, M. 2003. On the informational basis of social choice. Social Choice and Welfare 21: 347–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleurbaey, M. 2004. Two criteria for social decisions. Forthcoming in Journal Economic Theory.Google Scholar
Fleurbaey, M. 2005. The Pazner-Schmeidler social ordering: a defense. Review of Economic Design 9: 145–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleurbaey, M. and Hammond, P. J.. 2004. Interpersonally comparable utility. In Barbera, S., Hammond, P. J. and Seidl, C. (eds.), Handbook of Utility Theory, vol. 2, Dordrecht: KluwerGoogle Scholar
Fleurbaey, M. and Maniquet, F. 1996. Utilitarianism versus fairness in welfare economics. forthcoming in Salles, M. and Weymark, J. A. (eds.), Justice, political liberalism and utilitarianism: themes from Harsanyi and Rawls. Cambridge University PressGoogle Scholar
Fleurbaey, M. and Maniquet, F. 2001. Fair social orderings. Forthcoming in Economic TheoryGoogle Scholar
Fleurbaey, M. and Maniquet, F. 2002. Fair Income Tax. Forthcoming in Review of Economic StudiesGoogle Scholar
Fleurbaey, M. and Maniquet, F. 2005. Fair social orderings with unequal production skills. Social Choice and Welfare 24: 1–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleurbaey, M., Suzumura, K., and Tadenuma, K. 2005a. Arrovian aggregation in economic environments: how much should we know about indifference surfaces? Journal of Economic Theory 124: 22–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleurbaey, M., Suzumura, K., and Tadenuma, K. 2005b. The informational basis of the theory of fair allocation. Social Choice and Welfare 24: 311–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammond, P. J. 1987. Social choice: the science of the impossible? In Feiwel, G. R. (ed.), Arrow and the foundations of the theory of economic policy. New York University PressGoogle Scholar
Hansson, B. 1973. The independence condition in the theory of social choice. Theory and Decision 4: 25–49CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inada, K.-I. 1964. On the economic welfare function. Econometrica 32: 316–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Le Breton, M. 1997. Arrovian social choice on economic domains. In Arrow, K. J., A. K. Sen, and Suzumura, K. (eds.), Social choice re-examined, vol. 1. Macmillan and: St. Martin's PressGoogle Scholar
Moulin, H. and Thomson, W. 1997. Axiomatic analysis of resource allocation problems. In Arrow, K. J., Sen, A. K., and Suzumura, K. (eds.), Social choice re-examined, vol. 1. Macmillan and St. Martin's PressGoogle Scholar
Nishimura, Y. 2003a. Optimal commodity taxation for reduction of envy. Social Choice and Welfare 21: 501–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nishimura, Y. 2003b. Optimal non-linear income taxation for reduction of envy. Journal of Public Economics 87: 363–86CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pazner, E. 1979. Equity, nonfeasible alternatives and social choice: a reconsideration of the concept of social welfare. In Laffont, J. J. (ed.), Aggregation and revelation of preferences. North-HollandGoogle Scholar
Pazner, E. and Schmeidler, D. 1978. Egalitarian equivalent allocations: a new concept of economic equity. Quarterly Journal of Economics 92: 671–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plott, C. R. 1976. Axiomatic social choice theory: an overview. American Journal of Political Science 20: 511–96CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rawls, J. 1971. A theory of justice. Harvard University PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Risse, M. 2001. Arrow's Theorem, indeterminacy, and multiplicity reconsidered. Ethics 111: 706–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roemer, J. E. 1985. Equality of talent. Economics and Philosophy 1: 151–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1979. Personal utilities and public judgements: or what is wrong with welfare economics?, Economic Journal 89: 537–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1999. The possibility of social choice. American Economic Review 89: 349–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Parijs, P. 1995. Real freedom for all. Oxford University PressGoogle Scholar
Young, H. P. and Levenglick, A. 1978. A consistent extension of Condorcet's election principle. SIAM Journal of Applied Mathematics 35: 285–300CrossRefGoogle Scholar