DOI: 10.3982/ecta18930 ISSN: 0012-9682
“Near” Weighted Utilitarian Characterizations of Pareto Optima
Yeon-Koo Che, Jinwoo Kim, Fuhito Kojima, Christopher Thomas Ryan- Economics and Econometrics
We give two characterizations of Pareto optimality via “near” weighted utilitarian welfare maximization. One characterization sequentially maximizes utilitarian welfare functions using a finite sequence of nonnegative and eventually positive welfare weights. The other maximizes a utilitarian welfare function with a certain class of positive hyperreal weights. The social welfare ordering represented by these “near” weighted utilitarian welfare criteria is characterized by the standard axioms for weighted utilitarianism under a suitable weakening of the continuity axiom.