TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Spears, Dean
AU  - Zuber, Stéphane
        TI  - Foundations of Utilitarianism under Risk and Variable Population
        PY  - 2021/Jun/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 14515
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp14515
        AB  - Utilitarianism is the most prominent family of social welfare functions. We present three new axiomatic characterizations of utilitarian (that is, additively separable) social welfare functions in a setting where there is risk over both population size and the welfares of individuals. First, we show that, given uncontroversial basic axioms, Blackorby et al.'s (1998) Expected Critical-Level Generalized Utilitarianism (ECLGU) is equivalent to a new axiom holding that it is better to allocate higher utility-conditional-on-existence to possible people who have a higher probability of existence. 
The other two novel characterizations extend classic axiomatizations of utilitarianism from settings with either social risk or variable-population, considered alone. By considering both social risk and variable population together, we clarify the fundamental normative considerations underlying utilitarian policy evaluation.

        KW  - expected critical-level generalized utilitarianism
KW  - utilitarianism
KW  - population ethics
KW  - social risk
KW  - prioritarianism
        ER  -