Population Issues in Social Choice Theory, Welfare Economics, and Ethics

This book presents an exploration of the idea of the common or social good, extended so that alternatives with different populations can be ranked. The approach is, in the main, welfarist, basing rankings on the well-being, broadly conceived, of those who are alive (or ever lived). The axiomatic method is employed, and topics investigated include: the measurement of individual well-being, social attitudes toward inequality of well-being, the main classes of population principles, principles that provide incomplete rankings, principles that rank uncertain alternatives, best choices from feasible sets, and applications. The chapters are divided, with mathematical arguments confined to the second part. The first part is intended to make the arguments accessible to a more general readership. Although the book can be read as a defense of the critical-level generalized-utilitarian class of principles, comprehensive examinations of other classes are included.

1. Introduction; 2. The measurement of individual well-being; 3. Welfarist social evaluation; 4. Fixed-population principles; 5. Population principles; 6. Characterizations and possibilities; 7. Uncertainty and incommensurabilities; 8. Independence and the existence of the dead; 9. Temporal consistency; 10. Choice problems and rationalizability; 11. Applications.

This book presents an exploration of the idea of the common or social good, extended so that alternatives with different populations can be ranked. The approach is, in the main, welfarist, basing rankings on the well-being, broadly conceived, of those who are alive (or ever lived).

Charles Blackorby is Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick. He is a co-author of Duality, Separability and Functional Structure and has published articles in social choice theory and welfare economics. Profssor Blackorby is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and has received awards for his research. His current research interests are social-choice theory, population ethics, welfare economics and optimal taxation issues in public economics.
Walter Bossert is Professor of Economics and CIREQ Research Fellow at the Université de Montréal, Canada. He has published articles on social choice theory, bargaining theory and cooperative game theory. Professor Bossert's current research interests are the theory of individual and collective choice, population ethics, bargaining theory and cooperative game theory. He is a member of the editorial board of Social Choice and Welfare.
David Donaldson is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of British Columbia. He has received awards for teaching and research and has published articles in social choice theory and welfare economics. Professor Donaldson's current research interests include social choice theory, population ethics and interpersonal comparisons of well-being using equivalence scales in welfare economics.