Abstract
Can a tiny gain to sufficiently many well-off justify imposing a much larger sacrifice on the worst-off? We show that if one answers negatively to such a question and endorses replication invariance, one is forced to accept the maximin principle and give full priority to the worst-off even when a tiny gain to the worst-off imposes a substantial sacrifice on arbitrarily many well-off. If one dislikes this consequence, one faces a real dilemma in choosing between the tyranny of aggregation and the tyranny of non-aggregation.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 399-414 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | Economic Theory |
| Volume | 44 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2010 |
| Externally published | Yes |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Economics and Econometrics
Keywords
- Aggregation
- Maximin
- Social choice
- Utilitarianism