Social evaluation with variable population size: an alternative concept

Area of Science:

• Social Sciences
• Economics
• Welfare Economics

Background:

• Understanding the impact of population dynamics on social welfare is crucial for policy-making.
• Existing models may not fully capture the nuanced effects of societal growth on well-being.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a general concept for value judgments regarding population changes and social welfare.
• To introduce and discuss the replication invariance condition in welfare analysis.
• To provide an axiomatic framework for welfare orderings.

Main Methods:

• Introduction of a novel concept for expressing value judgments on agent addition.
• Discussion of the replication invariance condition.
• Development of an axiomatic framework using generalized averaging of individual utilities.

Main Results:

• A conceptual tool for assessing the welfare impact of population increases.
• Formalization of replication invariance in social welfare considerations.
• An axiomatic basis for welfare orderings derived from individual utilities.

Conclusions:

• The proposed framework offers a systematic approach to welfare economics concerning population changes.
• The axiomatic structure provides a rigorous foundation for analyzing societal well-being.
• Replication invariance is a key consideration for robust welfare assessments.