Impartiality, Priority, and Solidarity in the Theory of Justice

The ethic of priority is a compromise between the extremely compensatory ethic of outcome equality and the needs-blind ethic of resource equality. We propose an axiom of priority and characterize resource-allocation rules that are impartial, prioritarian, and solidaristic. They comprise a class of r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Econometrica 2006-09, Vol.74 (5), p.1419-1427
Main Authors: Moreno-Ternero, Juan D, Roemer, John E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
allocation rules
Applications
Biology, psychology, social sciences
Budget allocation
characterization result
Economic agents
Economic models
Economic theory
Egalitarianism
Ethics
Exact sciences and technology
Impartiality
Indexes
Insurance, economics, finance
Justice
Mathematical functions
Mathematics
Notes and Comments
Political economy
Prioritarianism
priority
Probability and statistics
Resource allocation
Sciences and techniques of general use
Social justice
Solidarity
Statistics
Studies
Wealth
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Summary:The ethic of priority is a compromise between the extremely compensatory ethic of outcome equality and the needs-blind ethic of resource equality. We propose an axiom of priority and characterize resource-allocation rules that are impartial, prioritarian, and solidaristic. They comprise a class of rules that equalize across individuals some index of outcome and resources. Consequently, we provide an ethical rationalization for the many applications in which such indices have been used (e.g., the human development index, the index of primary goods, etc.).
ISSN:0012-9682
1468-0262
DOI:10.1111/j.1468-0262.2006.00710.x