Galanis, Giorgos and Veneziani, Roberto. 2022. Behavioural Utilitarianism and Distributive Justice. Economics Letters, 215, 110488. ISSN 0165-1765 [Article]

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Abstract or Description

What are the distributive implications of utilitarianism? Is it compatible with a concern for equality, as many utilitarians have argued? We analyse these ques- tions in the context of a pure allocation problem. We consider an infinitely-lived economy and, drawing on the behavioural literature, assume that individuals have reference-dependent preferences: agents’ utility is a function of current consump- tion and a reference point which captures consumption habits, or the agents’ upbringing. Assuming a history of inequalities in consumption, we show that the utilitarian allocation is equalising: starting from an unequal distribution, inequal- ities decrease over time at the utilitarian optimum. However, even though agents are in a relevant sense identical, equality does not obtain at any finite time.

Item Type:	Article
Identification Number (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2022.110488
Additional Information:	JEL classification: D63; D9
Keywords:	Utilitarianism, Inequality, Reference dependent preferences
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Institute of Management Studies
Dates:	Date Event 29 March 2022 Accepted 4 April 2022 Published Online June 2022 Published
Item ID:	31700
Date Deposited:	07 Apr 2022 08:54
Last Modified:	27 Apr 2022 14:00
Peer Reviewed:	Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/31700

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