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Ranking blame

Author

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  • Zhuzhu Zhou

    (Xiamen University)

Abstract

A social planner wants to rank people. Utilitarianism implies that a natural ranking which orders people from most to least sensitive to their rank is the best ranking. But people’s feelings toward the social planner, like blame or gratitude, can depend both on their assigned rank, and on the alternatives they might have been assigned. As a result, the social planner needs to do pairwise comparisons and there may not be a best ranking due to intransitive cycles. This paper shows the possibility of the coexistence of a best choice and non-transitivity. It illustrates how to tell when a best ranking exists, and that when it exists, it is indeed the natural ranking. When this best does not exist, an alternative second-best group ranking strategy is proposed.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhuzhu Zhou, 2024. "Ranking blame," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 78(2), pages 403-441, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:joecth:v:78:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1007_s00199-023-01547-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s00199-023-01547-4
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Ranking; Blame; Regret theory; Transitivity; Best choice;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D70 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - General
    • D30 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - General
    • D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General

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