Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Revealed public preference and social utility

  • Articles
  • Published:
Public Choice Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Methods of demand theory are applied to the problem of the existence of a social welfare function under specific public choice algorithms. Integrability conditions, necessary for the derivation of social demand functions from utility maximization, are used. The social choice function, which chooses the mean of all voters demand for public goods to be the public provision, is analysed in detail. Necessary conditions for the existence of a social utility function, and by implication, a transative social ordering, are derived for this case. These conditions imply restrictions on individual preferences.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Arrow, K. J. Social Choice and Individual Values, 2nd ed., Yale University Press, 1963.

  • Bergson, A. “A Reformulation of Certain Aspects of Welfare Economics,” Quarterly Journal of Economics (1938). Reprinted in Arrow, K. J., and Scitovsky, T. (eds.) Readings in Welfare Economics, American Economics Association, 1969.

  • Bowen, H. R. “The Interpretation of Voting in the Allocation of Economic Resources,” Quarterly Journal of Economics (1943). Reprinted in Readings in Welfare Economics.

  • Davis, O. A., DeGroot, M. H., and Hinich, M. J. “Social Preference Orderings and Majority Rule,” Econometrica, January, 1972, pp. 147–157.

  • Hinich, M. J., Ledyard, J. O. and Ordeshook, P. C. “Nonvoting and the Existence of Equilibrium under Majority Rule,” Journal of Economic Theory, April, 1972, pp. 144–153.

  • Hinich, M. J. “Equilibrium in Spatial Voting: The Median Voter Result is an Artifact,” California Institute of Technology Social Science Working Paper 119, March, 1976.

  • Hurwicz, L. and Uzawa, H. “On Integrability of Demand Functions,” in Chipman, J. S. et al. (eds) Preference, Utility and Demand, Harcourt Brace, Jovanovich, 1971.

    Google Scholar 

  • Inada, K. “On the Economic Welfare Function,” Econometrica, July, 1964, pp. 316–338.

  • Shapiro, P. “Aggregation, Social Choice, and the Existence of a Social Utility Function,” Bureau of Labor Statistics, Office of Research Methods and Standards, Working Paper 55.

Download references

Authors
  1. Perry Shapiro
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

Department of Economics, University of California, Santa Barbara. T. Bergstrom, R. Deacon, J. Marshall and C. Plott read and commented on early drafts. Their comments as well as those of the editor and referees are greatly appreciated. The work was done while the author was in residence with the Office of Research Methods and Standards of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The BLS neither endorses nor is responsible for any part of this paper.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Shapiro, P. Revealed public preference and social utility. Public Choice 33, 103–115 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00118360

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00118360

Keywords

Search

Navigation