A concern about low relative income, and the alignment of utilitarianism with egalitarianism

Oded Stark*, Martyna Kobus, Marcin Jakubek

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

A utilitarian social planner who maximizes social welfare assigns the available income to those who are most efficient in converting income into utility. However, when individuals are concerned about their income falling behind the incomes of others, the optimal income distribution under utilitarianism is equality of incomes.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)235-238
Number of pages4
JournalEconomics Letters
Volume114
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2012
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Income equality
  • Relative income
  • Social welfare maximization
  • Utilitarianism

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A concern about low relative income, and the alignment of utilitarianism with egalitarianism'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this