On the Existence of Paretian Social Welfare Quasi-Orderings for Infinite Utility Streams with Extended Anonymity

Abstract

In ranking social states, which are specified by infinite utility streams, it is customary to use a social welfare quasi-ordering (SWQ), a reflexive and transitive binary relation on the social states, satisfying two widely accepted guiding principles. The equal treatment of all generations, proposed by Ramsey (1928), is formalized in the Finite Anonymity Axiom. The positive sensitivity of the social preference structure to the well-being of each generation is reflected in the Pareto Axiom.

We would like to thank Shankar Sen for helpful conversations, and specifically for suggesting the characterization result which appears as Lemma 1 in the chapter. An earlier version of this chapter was presented at the IEA Roundtable Meeting in Hakone, Japan, 10–12 March 2005, and the present version has benefited from comments by Geir Asheim, Claude d’Aspremont, Kuntal Banerjee, Marc Fleurbaey and Wlodek Rabinowicz.