Economic analysis addresses risk and long-term issues with discounted expected utility, focusing on optimality. Viability theory is based on sustainability constraints to be satisfied over time, focusing on feasibility. We make a bridge between these two approaches by showing that viability is...

We propose a new criterion which reflects both the concern for welfare (utility) and the concern for rights in the evaluation of economic development paths. The concern for rights is captured by a pre-ordering over combinations of thresholds (floors or ceilings on various quantitative...

The maximin criterion defines the highest utility level which can be sustained in an intergenerational equity perspective. The viability approach characterizes all the economic trajectories sustaining a given, not necessarily maximal, utility level. In this paper, we exhibit the strong links...