Social Welfare and Individual Preferences under Uncertainty: A Questionnaire-Experimental Approach

Abstract

We examine individuals' distributional orderings in situations involving (a) comparisons of social welfare and (b) choice under uncertainty. There is a special focus on whether these orderings satisfy the principle of transfers (the principle of mean-preserving spreads). The results are compared with those of earlier work that was conducted in the context of inequality and of risk.

Citation

Amiel, Y. and Cowell, F. (2007), "Social Welfare and Individual Preferences under Uncertainty: A Questionnaire-Experimental Approach", Bishop, J. and Amiel, Y. (Ed.) Inequality and Poverty (Research on Economic Inequality, Vol. 14), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 345-362. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1049-2585(06)14016-8