Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/245566 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 14515
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Utilitarianism is the most prominent family of social welfare functions. We present three new axiomatic characterizations of utilitarian (that is, additively separable) social welfare functions in a setting where there is risk over both population size and the welfares of individuals. First, we show that, given uncontroversial basic axioms, Blackorby et al.'s (1998) Expected Critical-Level Generalized Utilitarianism (ECLGU) is equivalent to a new axiom holding that it is better to allocate higher utility-conditional-on-existence to possible people who have a higher probability of existence. The other two novel characterizations extend classic axiomatizations of utilitarianism from settings with either social risk or variable-population, considered alone. By considering both social risk and variable population together, we clarify the fundamental normative considerations underlying utilitarian policy evaluation.
Subjects: 
expected critical-level generalized utilitarianism
utilitarianism
population ethics
social risk
prioritarianism
JEL: 
D63
D81
J10
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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