IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jpbect/v6y2004i5p637-654.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What We Owe Our Children, They Their Children, …

Author

Listed:
  • John E. Roemer
  • Roberto Veneziani

Abstract

Egalitarian theorists, since Rawls, have in the main advocated equalizing some objective measure of individual well‐being, such as primary goods, functionings, or resources, rather than subjective welfare. This discussion, however, has assumed, implicitly, a static environment. By analyzing a society that survives for many generations, we demonstrate that equality of opportunity for some objective condition is incompatible with human development over time. We argue that this incompatibility can be resolved by equalizing opportunities for welfare. Thus, “subjectivism” seems necessary if we are to hope for a society that can both equalize opportunities and support the development of human capacity over time.

Suggested Citation

  • John E. Roemer & Roberto Veneziani, 2004. "What We Owe Our Children, They Their Children, …," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 6(5), pages 637-654, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jpbect:v:6:y:2004:i:5:p:637-654
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9779.2004.00184.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9779.2004.00184.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-9779.2004.00184.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dasgupta, Partha, 1974. "On some alternative criteria for justice between generations," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 405-423, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Roberto Veneziani & Naoki Yoshihara, 2017. "Globalisation and inequality in a dynamic economy: an axiomatic analysis of unequal exchange," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 49(3), pages 445-468, December.
    2. Roberto Veneziani & Naoki Yoshihara, 2015. "Exploitation in economies with heterogeneous preferences, skills and assets: An axiomatic approach," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 27(1), pages 8-33, January.
    3. Roberto Veneziani & Naoki Yoshihara, 2010. "Exploitation and Profits: A General Axiomatic Approach in Convex Economies with Heterogeneous Agents," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2010-12, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    4. Galanis, Giorgos & Veneziani, Roberto, 2022. "Behavioural utilitarianism and distributive justice," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).
    5. Roberto Veneziani, 2013. "Exploitation, inequality and power," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 25(4), pages 526-545, October.
    6. Juan D. Moreno-Ternero & Roberto Veneziani, 2017. "Social welfare, justice and distribution," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 49(3), pages 415-421, December.
    7. Giorgos Galanis & Roberto Veneziani, 2017. "Equality of When?," Working Papers 812, Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance.
    8. Mariotti, Marco & Veneziani, Roberto, 2012. "Allocating chances of success in finite and infinite societies: The utilitarian criterion," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 226-236.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Huiping Yuan & Stephen M. Miller & Langnan Chen, 2011. "The Optimality And Controllability Of Monetary Policy Through Delegation With Consistent Targets," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 58(1), pages 82-106, February.
    2. Ita Falk & Oded Stark, 2001. "Dynasties and Destiny: On the Roles of Altruism and Impatience in the Evolution of Consumption and Bequests," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 68(272), pages 505-518, November.
    3. Hammond, Peter J & Zank, Horst, 2013. "Rationality and Dynamic Consistency under Risk and Uncertainty," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1033, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    4. John E. Roemer, 1996. "Equality versus Progress," Nordic Journal of Political Economy, Nordic Journal of Political Economy, vol. 23, pages 47-54.
    5. James A Roumasset & Lee H Endress, 2000. "Sustainable Development Without Constraints," Working Papers 200009, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.
    6. Alvarez-Cuadrado, Francisco & Van Long, Ngo, 2009. "A mixed Bentham-Rawls criterion for intergenerational equity: Theory and implications," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 154-168, September.
    7. Giorgos Galanis & Roberto Veneziani, 2017. "Equality of When?," Working Papers 812, Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance.
    8. Dasgupta, P., 2016. "Birth and Death," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1660, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    9. Huiping Yuan & Stephen M. Miller, 2006. "The Making of Optimal and Consistent Policy: An Implementation Theory Framework for Monetary Policy," Working papers 2006-06, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics, revised Jan 2009.
    10. John E. Roemer & Roberto Veneziani, 2001. "What We Owe Our Children, They Their Children,..," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1326, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    11. Wozny Lukasz & Growiec Jakub, 2012. "Intergenerational Interactions in Human Capital Accumulation," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-47, June.
    12. Llavador, Humberto & Roemer, John E. & Silvestre, Joaquim, 2010. "Intergenerational justice when future worlds are uncertain," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(5), pages 728-761, September.
    13. Alvaro Rodriguez, 1990. "Maximin growth paths with recursive preferences: A complete characterization," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 52(3), pages 233-251, October.
    14. Bishop, Richard C., 1977. "The Economics of Endangered Species:Alternative Approaches to Public Decisions," Staff Papers 200421, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    15. Bazhanov, Andrei V., 2013. "Constant-utility paths in a resource-based economy," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 342-355.
    16. Geir B. Asheim, 2017. "Sustainable growth," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 49(3), pages 825-848, December.
    17. Hammond, Peter J. & Zank, Horst, 2013. "Rationality and Dynamic Consistency under Risk and Uncertainty," Economic Research Papers 270426, University of Warwick - Department of Economics.
    18. W. Botzen & Jeroen Bergh, 2014. "Specifications of Social Welfare in Economic Studies of Climate Policy: Overview of Criteria and Related Policy Insights," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 58(1), pages 1-33, May.
    19. Bazhanov, Andrei, 2006. "Decreasing of Oil Extraction: Consumption behavior along transition paths," MPRA Paper 469, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Kovács, Antal Ferenc, 2022. "A Dasgupta-jelentés: fenntarthatóság, biodiverzitás és vagyoni szemléletű gazdasági fejlődés. Partha Dasgupta: The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review. HM Treasury, London, 2021 [Partha ," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(9), pages 1098-1104.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jpbect:v:6:y:2004:i:5:p:637-654. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/apettea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.