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Generalized utilitarianism and Harsanyi's impartial observer theorem
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Grant, Simon, Kajii, Atsushi, Polak, Ben and Safra, Zvi (2010) Generalized utilitarianism and Harsanyi's impartial observer theorem. Econometrica, 78 (6). pp. 1939-1971. doi:10.3982/ECTA6712 ISSN 0012-9682.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3982/ECTA6712
Abstract
Harsanyi's impartial observer must consider two types of lotteries: imaginary identity lotteries (“accidents of birth”) that she faces as herself and the real outcome lotteries (“life chances”) to be faced by the individuals she imagines becoming. If we maintain a distinction between identity and outcome lotteries, then Harsanyi-like axioms yield generalized utilitarianism, and allow us to accommodate concerns about different individuals' risk attitudes and concerns about fairness. Requiring an impartial observer to be indifferent as to which individual should face similar risks restricts her social welfare function, but still allows her to accommodate fairness. Requiring an impartial observer to be indifferent between identity and outcome lotteries, however, forces her to ignore both fairness and different risk attitudes, and yields a new axiomatization of Harsanyi's utilitarianism.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School | ||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Econometrica | ||||
Publisher: | Blackwell Publishing | ||||
ISSN: | 0012-9682 | ||||
Official Date: | November 2010 | ||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 78 | ||||
Number: | 6 | ||||
Page Range: | pp. 1939-1971 | ||||
DOI: | 10.3982/ECTA6712 | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
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