Conditions for extrapolating differences in consumption to differences in welfare

C-Tier
Journal: Economic Inquiry
Year: 2024
Volume: 62
Issue: 3
Pages: 1090-1104

Score contribution per author:

0.503 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 0.5x C-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

We characterize conditions under which a better consumption distribution implies higher welfare. Specifically, here “better consumption” means first‐order stochastic dominance, and “higher welfare” means higher expected utility for every subpopulation of individuals with the same utility function. Although this implication seems natural, we first provide a counterexample wherein better consumption risk allocation outweighs lower consumption. We then show that higher expected utility results from higher consumption in different settings, including fixed dependence (fixed copula) between consumption and individual risk preferences, or alternatively using the rank invariance assumption from the treatment effects literature. These are discussed in several real‐world examples.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:bla:ecinqu:v:62:y:2024:i:3:p:1090-1104
Journal Field
General
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-25