This paper analyzes social situations in the context of risk. A new argument is proposed in order to defend the ex-post approach against Diamond’s (1967) famous critique of Harsanyi’s (1955) utilitarian theorem. It leads to a characterization of the criterion consisting in computing the...

Dans l'ouvrage que Van Parijs a consacre en 1995 aux fondements philosophiques et economiques du projet d'allocation universelle, le chapitre IV est dedie au probleme du financement "soutenable" d'une telle mesure. Les "rentes associees aux emplois" y sont presentees comme un troisieme type de...

This paper shows that, in a partially welfarist framework that permits discounting, per-period social evaluations can be consistent with a timeless social ordering only if social principles lead to the repugnant conclusion. The same result applies if per-period social evaluations are replaced by...

Restricting attention to quasi-linear utility functions, we examine in the paper the distributive incidence of income taxes used to finance the production of a single public good.

In the frame of an exchange economy, we propose a criterion to compare a priori (i.e. before the market process begins) two individual endowments. This criterion is incompatible with the main norms of the distributive justice but permits to define of a new norm of equity. Unfortunately, this...

This paper provides a survey of normative approaches to inequality measurement, to be published as a chapter in a volume of income inequality. We present general methods for deriving ethical inequality indexes from social-evaluation orderings such as the Atkinson-Kolm-Sen and Kolm procedures.

En matiere de justice sociale, Hayek suscite un commentaire ambivalent: sous-produit d'une demarche evolutionnists, sa coherence et son realisme sont dificiles a prendre en defaut, consequences de fortes convictions liberales, la formulation adoptee est souvent provocante. A l'egard du "mirage...

This paper analyzes variable-population social-evaluation principles in a framework where outcomes are uncertain. In a static model, we provide characterizations of expected-utility versions of Critical-Level Generalized Utilitarian rules.

We propose the concept of a universal social ordering, defined on the set of pairs of an allocation and a preference profile of any finite population. It is meant to unify evaluations and comparisons of social states with populations of possibly different sizes with various characteristics. The...

An early death is, undoubtedly, a serious disadvantage. However, the compensation of short-lived individuals has remained so far largely unexplored, probably because it appears infeasible. Indeed, short-lived agents can hardly be identified ex ante, and cannot be compensated ex post. We argue...