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Share the Sugar

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  • Christian Tarsney
  • Harvey Lederman
  • Dean Spears

Abstract

We provide a general argument against value incomparability, based on a new style of impossibility result. In particular, we show that, against plausible background assumptions, value incomparability creates an incompatibility between two very plausible principles for ranking lotteries: a weak ``negative dominance'' principle (to the effect that Lottery 1 can be better than Lottery 2 only if some possible outcome of Lottery 1 is better than some possible outcome of Lottery 2) and a weak form of ex ante Pareto (to the effect that, if Lottery 1 gives an unambiguously better prospect to some individuals than Lottery 2, and equally good prospects to everyone else, then Lottery 1 is better than Lottery 2). After spelling out our results, and the arguments based on them, we consider which principle the proponent of incomparability ought to reject.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Tarsney & Harvey Lederman & Dean Spears, 2024. "Share the Sugar," Papers 2403.17641, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2403.17641
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    References listed on IDEAS

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