An Economics-Based Rationale for the Rawlsian Social Welfare Program

Arbeitspapier

We show that a social planner who seeks to allocate a given sum in order to reduce efficiently the social stress of a population, as measured by the aggregate relative deprivation of the population, pursues a disbursement procedure that is identical to the procedure adhered to by a Rawlsian social planner who seeks to allocate the same sum in order to maximize the Rawlsian maximin-based social welfare function. Thus, the constrained minimization of aggregate relative deprivation constitutes an economics-based rationale for the philosophy-based constrained maximization of the Rawlsian social welfare function.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 13662

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Relation of Economics to Social Values ; Microeconomic Policy: Formulation, Implementation, and Evaluation ; Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement ; National Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs ; Comparative Analysis of Economic Systems
• Subject: Rawlsian social welfare function ; aggregate relative deprivation (ARD) ; social stress ; an algorithm of cost-effective policy response to ARD ; congruence of the algorithm with the Rawlsian social welfare program

Contributors, Location and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Stark, Oded
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2020

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/227189
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET