Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/63058 
Year of Publication: 
2006
Series/Report no.: 
Memorandum No. 2006,18
Publisher: 
University of Oslo, Department of Economics, Oslo
Abstract: 
Koopmans’s (Econometrica 28, 287–309) axiomatization of discounted utilitarianism is based on seemingly compelling conditions, yet this criterion leads to hard-to-justify outcomes. The present analysis considers a class of sustainable recursive social welfare functions within Koopmans’s general framework. This class is axiomatized by means of a weak new equity condition (“Hammond Equity for the Future”) and general existence is established. Any member of the class satisfies the key axioms of Chichilnisky’s (Social Choice and Welfare 13, 231–257) “sustainable preferences”. The analysis singles out one of Koopmans’s original conditions as particularly questionable from an ethical perspective.
Subjects: 
Intergenerational justice
sustainability
discounted utilitarianism
JEL: 
D63
D71
Q01
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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