期刊名称：CORE Discussion Papers / Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (UCL), Louvain
出版年度：2010
卷号：2010
期号：1
出版社：Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (UCL), Louvain
摘要：This paper re-examines a counterintuitive corollary of utilitarianism under unequal longevities:
the tendency to redistribute resources from short-lived towards long-lived agents, against any
intuition of compensation. It is shown that this corollary prevails not only under time-additive
lifetime welfare, but, also, in general, under non-additive lifetime welfare, so that this
counterintuitive redistributive corollary is a robust argument against utilitarianism. This paper
studies a remedy to that counterintuitive corollary. This consists in imputing, when solving the
social planner's problem, the consumption equivalent of a long life to the consumption of long-
lived agents. We identify the conditions under which such a modified utilitarian optimum
involves a compensation of short-lived agents with respect to the laissez-faire. That remedy is
also applied to an economy with risky longevity, where short-lived agents are penalized not only
by the limited opportunities to spread resources over time (due to a shorter life), but, also, by lost
savings (due to unanticipated death).
