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From May 20 to May 24, 1986 a conference on distributive justice
and in equality was held at the Institute for Advanced Study Berlin
(Wis senschaftskolleg zu Berlin). More than thirty scholars
participated in this conference. The topics of the presentations
ranged from ethics, welfare economics and social choice theory to
characterizations of inequality meas ures and redistributive
taxation schemes. This book contains a selection of the papers
given at the conference. This collection of articles also appeared
as issues 2 and 3 of volume 5 of Social Choice and Welfare. In the
first paper P. Suppes argues for a pluralistic concept of equity.
For too long the emphasis has been on income distribution but there
are other characteristics which are important when one talks about
equity. Suppes suggests that it would be desirable to have Lorenz
curves for a variety of fea tures of societies, such as education,
health and housing. P. Dasgupta studies the quality of lives in
terms of an index of living stand ards. One has to distinguish
between "same number choices" (the number of lives is given) and
"different numbers choices" (problem of optimum popUlation). The
author argues that in the latter case the anonymity (or sym metry)
axiom cannot be readily defended. Once it is dropped, however, an
incoherence in the moral ordering of possible worlds arises. The
moral basis for different numbers choices becomes
generation-dependent, an overall moral ordering of possible worlds
no longer exists."
It is probably fair to say that there does not exist a unique and
generally accepted not ion of justice. Even if one confines oneself
to economic justice one can still get many answers to the question
of how justice - henceforth we shall use the term "distributive
justice" should be defined and characterized. This may be
disappointing for the outside observer but one can also view this
as achallenge, at least as long as one thinks that distributive
justice is an issue economics should be concerned with. Many
problems of distributive justice can be described as follows: There
is a fixed collection of well-defined objects (usually commodi
ties) which are quantitatively measurable and perfectly divisible.
This collection is to be divided up among a certain number of
individuals, the members of society, let 's say. According to which
principles or rules should this distribution be carried out? Should
people be rewarded according to their ability or according to their
needs? Should the distribution be such that nobody envies the
bundle of any other member of society? Should the collection of
entities be distributed in a way that yields the greatest benefi."
Since Aristotle, many different theories of distributive justice
have been proposed, by philosophers as well as social scientists.
The typical approach within social choice theory is to assess these
theories in an axiomatic way - most of the time the reader is
confronted with abstract reasoning and logical deductions. This
book shows that empirical insights are necessary if one wants to
apply any theory of justice in the real world. It does so by
confronting the main theories of distributive justice with data
from (mostly) questionnaire experiments. The book starts with an
extensive discussion on why empirical social choice makes sense and
how it should be done. It then presents various experimental
results relating to theories of distributive justice, including the
Rawlsian equity axiom, Harsanyi's version of utilitarianism,
utilitarianism with a floor, responsibility-sensitive
egalitarianism, the claims problem and fairness in health.
Processes of collective decision making are seen throughout modern
society. How does a government decide on an investment strategy
within the health care and educational sectors? Should a government
or a community introduce measures to combat climate change and CO2
emissions, even if others choose not too? Should a country develop
a nuclear capability despite the risk that other countries may
follow their lead?
This introductory text explores the theory of social choice. Social
choice theory provides an analysis of collective decision making.
The main aim of the book is to introduce students to the various
methods of aggregating the preferences of all members of a given
society into some social or collective preference. Written as a
primer suitable for advanced undergraduates and graduates, this
text will act as an important starting point for students grappling
with the complexities of social choice theory. With all new chapter
exercises this rigorous yet accessible primer avoids the use of
technical language and provides an up-to-date discussion of this
rapidly developing field.
Wulf Gaertner provides a comprehensive account of an important and
complex issue within social choice theory: how to establish a
social welfare function while restricting the spectrum of
individual preferences in a sensible way. Gaertner's starting point
is K. J. Arrow's famous 'Impossibility Theorem', which showed that
no welfare function could exist if an unrestricted domain of
preferences is to be satisfied together with some other appealing
conditions. A number of leading economists have tried to provide
avenues out of this 'impossibility' by restricting the variety of
preferences: here, Gaertner provides a clear and detailed account,
using standardized mathematical notation, of well over forty
theorems associated with domain conditions. Domain Conditions in
Social Choice Theory will be an essential addition to the library
of social choice theory for scholars and their advanced graduate
students.
Offering the most comprehensive and up-to-date survey of current research in an important area of social choice theory, Wulf Gaertner's monograph provides an essential reference for economists and political scientists. In the interests of accessibilty and readability, extensive formal proofs to theorems are not included in the text but are carefully referenced, allowing interested readers to pursue them independently. Though written in a formal style, the mathematical level of the book is designed to be appropriate for graduate students with a basic training in mathematics.
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