Abstract
We study fairness in economies where humans consume one private good and one public good representing the welfare of other species. We show that a social evaluator cannot be egalitarian with respect to humans while always respecting humans’ unanimous preferences. One solution is to respect unanimous preferences only when doing so does not lead to a decrease in the welfare of other species. Social preferences satisfying these properties reveal surprising connections between concerns for other species, egalitarianism among humans, and unanimity: the latter two imply a form of dictatorship from humans with the strongest preference for the welfare of other species.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 466-491 |
Number of pages | 26 |
Journal | American Economic Journal: Microeconomics |
Volume | 13 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2021 |
Externally published | Yes |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Economics, Econometrics and Finance(all)