The discounted utilitarian criterion for infinite horizon social choice has been criticized for treating generations unequally. We propose an extended rank-discounted utilitarian (ERDU) criterion instead. The criterion amounts to discounted utilitarianism on non-decreasing streams, but it treats...

Discounted utilitarianism and the Ramsey equation prevail in the debate on the discount rate on consumption. The utility discount rate is assumed to be constant and to reflect either the uncertainty about the existence of future generations or a pure preference for the present. The authors...

Harsanyi (1955) proved that, in the context of uncertainty, social rationality and the Pareto principle impose severe constraints on the degree of priority for the worst-off that can be adopted in the social evaluation. Since then, the literature has hesitated between an ex ante approach that...

La théorie macroéconomique utilise généralement des fonctions de bien-être social stationnaires. Dans cet article, nous nous interrogeons sur la compatibilité entre cette hypothèse de stationnarité et l'axiome de Pareto dans un modèle où les individus vivent plusieurs périodes. Cette...

[eng] The Welfare State is generally thought to transfer resources from young and future generations to old ones. This opinion, however, is based on a narrow view of the transfer system that focuses on pensions and elderly-care programs. Our paper shows that taking downward educational transfers...