Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/118610 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
ZEF Discussion Papers on Development Policy No. 198
Publisher: 
University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF), Bonn
Abstract: 
When individuals' utility is a convex combination of their income and their concern at having a low relative income (the weights attached to income and to the concern at having a low relative income sum up to one), the maximization of aggregate utility yields an equal income distribution. This alignment of utilitarianism and egalitarianism is obtained for any number of individuals, and for general utility functions that are convex combinations of a power function of income and the concern at having a low relative income. The alignment can also hold when the weights sum up to a number different than one.
Subjects: 
utilitarianism
egalitarianism
social welfare maximization
low relative income
JEL: 
H0
I0
I30
I31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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