The Limit of Discounted Utilitarianism

This paper presents an infinite-horizon version of intergenerational utilitarianism that is both satisfactorily complete and consistent. By studying discounted utilitarianism as the discount factor tends to one, a generalized criterion is obtained, which we completely characterize in terms of Finite Anonymity, Strong Pareto, Partial Unit Comparability and three additional consistency axioms. Its construction leads to an extended concept of utility difference for infinite utility streams, from which an ethical principle of compensations is rigorously derived. Through the principle of compensations, the concept of extended utility is proposed as a replacement for the extended axioms of anonymity that have been introduced in previous studies