Bergson–Samuelson social welfare function
E573599
The Bergson–Samuelson social welfare function is a formal tool in welfare economics that aggregates individual utilities into a single measure of social welfare to evaluate and compare economic states or policies.
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
concept in welfare economics
ⓘ
normative economic concept ⓘ social welfare function ⓘ |
| allows |
ranking of social states
ⓘ
welfare comparisons under different allocations of resources ⓘ |
| assumes |
complete social preference ordering over feasible allocations
ⓘ
transitive social preferences ⓘ |
| basedOn | individualistic social welfare ethics ⓘ |
| canRepresent | different ethical systems depending on its functional form ⓘ |
| category |
economic theory concept
ⓘ
social choice theory concept ⓘ |
| characteristic |
allows interpersonal comparisons of utility via social value judgments
ⓘ
normative value judgments are embedded in its functional form ⓘ ordinally invariant with respect to individual utilities ⓘ |
| contrastsWith | purely Paretian welfare analysis without explicit social welfare function ⓘ |
| developedBy | Paul A. Samuelson NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| field |
microeconomics
ⓘ
welfare economics ⓘ |
| formalizedIn |
Bergson’s 1938 paper "A Reformulation of Certain Aspects of Welfare Economics"
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Samuelson’s subsequent works on welfare economics ⓘ |
| generalizationOf | utilitarian welfare aggregation ⓘ |
| hasInput | individual utility levels ⓘ |
| hasOutput | scalar measure of social welfare ⓘ |
| influenced |
cost–benefit analysis
ⓘ
modern optimal taxation theory ⓘ public economics ⓘ theory of second-best ⓘ |
| introducedBy | Abram Bergson NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| mathematicalForm | real-valued function of individual utilities W(u1, u2, …, un) ⓘ |
| mayBe |
increasing in each individual’s utility
ⓘ
symmetric with respect to individuals ⓘ |
| namedAfter |
Abram Bergson
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Paul A. Samuelson NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| purpose |
aggregate individual utilities into a measure of social welfare
ⓘ
evaluate and compare economic policies ⓘ evaluate and compare economic states ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
Arrow’s impossibility theorem
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Pareto criterion NERFINISHED ⓘ Rawlsian maximin social welfare function ⓘ utilitarian social welfare function ⓘ |
| requires | explicit specification of social value judgments ⓘ |
| timePeriod | 20th century ⓘ |
| usedFor |
analyzing optimal policy interventions
ⓘ
deriving conditions for Pareto efficiency ⓘ formalizing social choice in economic models ⓘ |
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.