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, 2003, Volume 71, Issue 5

Aggregating Infinite Utility Streams with InterGenerational Equity: The Impossibility of Being Paretian

https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0262.00458
p. 1557-1563

Kaushik Basu, Tapan Mitra

It has been known that, in aggregating infinite utility streams, there does not exist any social welfare function, which satisfies the axioms of Pareto, intergenerational equity, and continuity. We show that the impossibility result persists even without imposing the continuity axiom, and in frameworks allowing for more general domains of utilities than those used in the existing literature.


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