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When do utilitarianism and egalitarianism agree on evaluation? An intersection approach

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  • Kamaga, Kohei

Abstract

We examine the range of the agreement between the utilitarian social welfare ordering (SWO) and leximin SWO by analyzing the intersection of them. We characterize the intersection (in terms of subrelation) using the strong version of Pigou–Dalton equity and a new axiom on the composition of rank-preserving progressive and regressive utility transfers. Then, adding separability and cardinal full comparability, we jointly characterize the leximin SWO and the lexicographic composition of the utilitarian and leximin SWOs that applies the utilitarian SWO first. We also jointly characterize these two SWOs and the utilitarian SWO using the weak version of Pigou–Dalton equity.

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  • Kamaga, Kohei, 2018. "When do utilitarianism and egalitarianism agree on evaluation? An intersection approach," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 41-48.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:matsoc:v:94:y:2018:i:c:p:41-48
    DOI: 10.1016/j.mathsocsci.2018.05.002
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    2. St'ephane Gonzalez & Nikolaos Pnevmatikos, 2023. "A Story of Consistency: Bridging the Gap between Bentham and Rawls Foundations," Papers 2303.07488, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2023.
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    5. Sakamoto, Norihito, 2020. "Equity Principles and Interpersonal Comparison of Well-being: Old and New Joint Characterizations of Generalized Leximin, Rank-dependent Utilitarian, and Leximin Rules," RCNE Discussion Paper Series 7, Research Center for Normative Economics, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.

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