Econometrica

Journal Of The Econometric Society

An International Society for the Advancement of Economic
Theory in its Relation to Statistics and Mathematics

Edited by: Guido W. Imbens • Print ISSN: 0012-9682 • Online ISSN: 1468-0262

Econometrica: Sep, 1979, Volume 47, Issue 5

Equity in Two Person Situations: Some Consequences

https://doi.org/0012-9682(197909)47:5<1127:EITPSS>2.0.CO;2-X
p. 1127-1136

Peter J. Hammond

Suppose that social choice is based on interpersonal comparisons of welfare levels. Suppose too that, whenever all but two persons are indifferent between two options, a choice is made between these options which is equitable, in some sense. Then provided that individual welfare functions are unrestricted, and social choice is independent of irrelevant alternatives, it follows that social choice is always equitable, in the same sense. This applies when equity means satisfying Suppes' indifference rule, or Suppes' original justice criterion, or the lexicographic extension of Rawls' difference principle.


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