Social welfare function

In welfare economics, a social welfare function is a function that ranks social states (alternative complete descriptions of the society) as less desirable, more desirable, or indifferent for every possible pair of social states. Inputs of the function include any variables considered to affect the economic welfare of a society. In using welfare measures of persons in the society as inputs, the social welfare function is individualistic in form. One use of a social welfare function is to represent prospective patterns of collective choice as to alternative social states. The social welfare function provides the government with a simple guideline for achieving the optimal distribution of income.

Comment
enIn welfare economics, a social welfare function is a function that ranks social states (alternative complete descriptions of the society) as less desirable, more desirable, or indifferent for every possible pair of social states. Inputs of the function include any variables considered to affect the economic welfare of a society. In using welfare measures of persons in the society as inputs, the social welfare function is individualistic in form. One use of a social welfare function is to represent prospective patterns of collective choice as to alternative social states. The social welfare function provides the government with a simple guideline for achieving the optimal distribution of income.
Has abstract
enIn welfare economics, a social welfare function is a function that ranks social states (alternative complete descriptions of the society) as less desirable, more desirable, or indifferent for every possible pair of social states. Inputs of the function include any variables considered to affect the economic welfare of a society. In using welfare measures of persons in the society as inputs, the social welfare function is individualistic in form. One use of a social welfare function is to represent prospective patterns of collective choice as to alternative social states. The social welfare function provides the government with a simple guideline for achieving the optimal distribution of income. The social welfare function is analogous to the consumer theory of indifference-curve–budget constraint tangency for an individual, except that the social welfare function is a mapping of individual preferences or judgments of everyone in the society as to collective choices, which apply to all, whatever individual preferences are for (variable) constraints on factors of production. One point of a social welfare function is to determine how close the analogy is to an ordinal utility function for an individual with at least minimal restrictions suggested by welfare economics, including constraints on the number of factors of production. There are two major distinct but related types of social welfare functions: * A Bergson–Samuelson social welfare function considers welfare for a given set of individual preferences or welfare rankings. * An Arrow social welfare function considers welfare across different possible sets of individual preferences or welfare rankings and seemingly reasonable axioms that constrain the function.
Hypernym
Function
Is primary topic of
Social welfare function
Label
enSocial welfare function
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www.jstor.org/stable/2228209
www.jstor.org/stable/2553231
www.jstor.org/pss/2553553
www.citeulike.org/user/rlai/article/681900
dx.doi.org/10.1057/9780230226203.1567
books.google.com/books%3Fid=u8GPYeT1qAUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=false
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scholar.harvard.edu/sen/publications/choice-welfare-and-measurement
web.archive.org/web/20060215000915/http:/cepa.newschool.edu/het/essays/paretian/paretosocial.htm%23swf
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A.C. Pigou
Abba Lerner
Abram Bergson
Aggregation problem
Alfred Marshall
Amartya Sen
An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science
Anthony Barnes Atkinson
Arrow's impossibility theorem
Benthamite
Budget constraint
Cambridge University Press
Cardinal utility
Category:Mathematical economics
Category:Social choice theory
Category:Welfare economics
Ceteris paribus
Closed set
Community indifference curve
Consumer theory
Differentiable function
Distribution (economics)
Economic welfare
Enrico Barone
Extended sympathy
Factors of production
Foundations of Economic Analysis
Function (mathematics)
Gini index
Gorman polar form
Indifference curve
Invisible hand
Jan de Van Graaff
Jeremy Bentham
John C. Harsanyi
John Rawls
Justice (economics)
Kenneth Arrow
Kotaro Suzumura
Law of diminishing marginal utility
Liberal paradox
Life expectancy
Lionel Robbins
Mathematical problem
Median
Methodological individualism
Nash bargaining solution
Ordinal utility function
Pareto efficiency
Pareto optimality
Paul A. Samuelson
Paul Samuelson
Pigou–Dalton principle
Preference relation
Production possibility frontier
Production-possibility frontier
Social Choice and Individual Values
Social choice theory
Theil index
The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics
Total order
Uncertainty aversion
Utilitarian
Utilitarianism
Utility function
Vilfredo Pareto
Welfare economics
SameAs
4190150-2
Félagsleg skilvirkni
Função de bem-estar social
Funkce sociálního zabezpečení
Funkcja dobrobytu społecznego
ibd7
m.01fskx
Q1754086
Samfundsvelfærdsfunktion
Társadalmi jóléti függvény
Velferdsfunksjon
Wohlfahrtsfunktion
פונקציית רווחה חברתית
تابع رفاه اجتماعی
社会的厚生関数
Subject
Category:Mathematical economics
Category:Social choice theory
Category:Welfare economics
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