Equity, continuity, and myopia: A generalization of Diamond’s impossibility theorem

Abstract.

 We consider social preferences over infinite horizon intergenerational consumption paths. We use the Mackey topology to define continuity of social preferences. Our main objective is to generalize one of Diamond’s impossibility theorems. First, we show that the trivial preference relation is the only asymmetric social preference relation satisfying equity and continuity. Second, we compare Campbell’s impossibility theorem with ours. Finally we use an order-based notion of myopia and establish another impossibility result.