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The theory of justice

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Abstract

This article presents the general structure of the question justice in society, its three polar cases which relate to the benefits from the human resources, their difficulties with Pareto-efficiency, and the solutions of these dilemma, notably for the central case where individuals a priori own only their consumptive capacities. This solution is a multidimensional maximin which leads to super-equity (no individual prefers any average of the individuals' allocations to his own). The properties of efficient super-equity are then shown: limits to the dispersion of incomes and relations with equal income, preference to all equal allocations, determination of the redistributive tax-subsidies, relations with other principles. Finally, the efficient implementation of standard ethical positions consists of the equalizing redistribution of incomes earned during a fixed duration while the other earned incomes are untaxed.

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  1. Paris, France

    Serge-Christophe Kolm

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Kolm, SC. The theory of justice. Soc Choice Welfare 13, 151–182 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00183349

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